


No One Stands Alone

by JaneWeller



Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Explicit Language, F/M, Romance, Tortures, facing past, getting even, spookiness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2019-09-18
Packaged: 2019-09-27 06:08:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 26,884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17156663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JaneWeller/pseuds/JaneWeller
Summary: It's not easy to be different, especially when it means having crazy powerful abilities.It's even worse when it wasn't your choice to become something more than just a human.Elena spent the last five years of her life being locked up in a secret facility where she was the subject of illegal and unethical experiments. On the day she escaped from her prison, she crossed paths with the only man who can understand her.What's going to happen when she's forced to face her past and what's awaiting for her and Logan after finding an abandoned structure near Alkali Lake?Or it isn't abandoned after all?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Merawlee](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merawlee/gifts).



> Merry Christmas, sweetie!
> 
> So this story was supposed to be a Spooky Halloween exchange thing between Mera and I but real life and other things happened along the way so we moved it to Christmas time but still with spookiness embeded in our stories. Either of us has not finished their stories yet but we're working on it.  
> We're bashing our heads a lot so please, send us some fluffy pillows in the comments!
> 
> ~ * ~
> 
> I want to say big thank you to Ever_Dreamer for being my beta-reader and for being so patient with fixing all the grammar mistakes I've made. This story wouldn't look so good without your help. :)

Prologue

Elena stood on a stone beach just out of reach of Alkali Lake’s shore and stared at the dam and some man-made structures next to it on the other side of this giant Canadian pond. It was the middle of summer so it was warm and mountain ranges towering the both sides of the lake were without a trace of snow which made everything to look so differently from what she had seen eight months ago.

She adjusted the straps of her backpack and got closer to the waterline. After taking a deep breath in, she stepped forward. Instead of her leg submerging ankle-deep into water, it remained on its surface as if there was an invisible glass panel on top of it. She took another step and looked at her feet. There was a bluish hue shimmering underneath them. Elena smiled and looked ahead to where the place she wanted to get inside was. She started walking, slowly at first and then she increased her pace until she was running across the lake.

A landing platform was sticking out from the mountainside. Elena climbed onto it after crossing the lake. It was all empty besides a few pieces of junk lying around. There were two big round entrances dug in the rock which led inside the complex hidden deep inside the mountain. Heavy doors were closed shut and barricaded with at least a dozen of rusty metal beams to keep everyone from breaking in.

She was standing in front the one on the left, her heart rate higher than usual and it had nothing to do with her running across the lake. The feelings of dreadfulness and pain made her to pause for a few minutes. Elena wanted the answers but when she was about to get them suddenly she hesitated.

The things that had happened behind that door were haunting her till this day. She had used to relive them every night in her dreams until waking up screaming. She still had bad dreams from time to time but they were not so terrifying anymore, all thanks to the powers of Professor Charles Xavier himself. He helped her with them after she demolished her room for the third night in a row.

Her inner demons might have been locked away but the ones who were hiding behind those doors were still on the loose. It was up to her to defeat them or be the one consumed by them. She raised her right hand and touched the first beam. A second later, it became a cloud dust taken by the wind towards the lake. One by one, the other girders disappeared in the same way. Nothing was blocking the way inside but the door itself. She placed her hand over the tiny crack between the two halves with intention to destroy them as well. Before she could do that, a large male palm covered hers, stopping Elena from accomplishing her current goal. Its warmth was seeping into her skin, making her feel safe again. She closed her eyes to fully enjoy the feeling. Then she heard his deep voice, the only one who was able to cause the cells in her body to vibrate in anticipation.

“I’ve told you that we’re gonna do this together.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fragments in italics are the flashbacks from her past.

Get Up and Run

  


_In a middle of a freezing hell, somewhere up North._  
_January 2010_

  


She ran as fast as she could, considering the fact that it was the middle of winter and the air was freezing cold. She was wearing only a pair of sneakers with a grey prison jumpsuit over plain cotton underwear. She did not stop, just kept pushing herself more and more. Those who were chasing her were getting closer; she heard their heavy steps crunching through the dry twigs and piles of snow. She would never go back to the place she was running from. They would not capture her alive. She would put up a fight until her last breath, taking down as many of them as possible. Everything was better than the hell she just escaped.

  


The pain had been unbearably agonizing. She had been able to feel every single cell in her body being ripped apart before being sew back together again. She had not been able to scream anymore, her throat and vocal cords so raw that she had become mute. Pain had been everything. It had filled her entirely; it had swamped her from every direction. The pain had been her and she had been the pain.  She had not been able to escape it no matter how hard she had tried.

  


Only ten minutes had passed since she escaped the cell she was kept in but it felt as if it was hours ago. She started to slow down, her legs getting numb from the cold air and wet snow. The forest she was running through became denser as if it was trying to help the hunters to capture her. She took another step forward just to let her leg slip along with a pile of snow. Despite the full moon she did not notice that there was a ledge and she tumbled down the hillside. Her skin was cut with sharp edges of stone hidden beneath the snow and her clothes got torn in a few places. Other than that and a few bruises she was rather fine. Staying there, half buried into the snow, was very tempting. Some parts of her body were numb, some just tingling, and the rest simply aching from frostbites. In comparison to what she had been experiencing for the last five years of her life, she was now in heaven. All she needed to do was to close her eyes and fall asleep.

  


She had not known how many days had already passed. She had woken up in a claustrophobically small cell. It had been three meters long and less than two meters wide. It had been made of dark gray concrete with a platform along the longer side of it and a toilet in the furthest corner. There had not been any windows, just a thick metal door with a small barred vent in the upper part of it and small opening at the bottom where the meals had been kicked inside the cell. The only light had been coming from a weak light bulb placed above the entrance. All she had been able to do, besides screaming from the top of her lungs, had been either sleeping, or exercising, or staring into the dimly lit ceiling; at least when she had not been dragged into a blinding white lab where she had been mercilessly poked and tested for hours until she had been about to pass out from exhaustion and pain. She had barely remembered the times she had been tossed into her cell like a bag of rocks. For them she had not been a human being but an object, their personal possession which they had enjoyed breaking into pieces every single day.

  


After everything you’ve been through, are you really going to give up now?

That thought forced her to get up on her feet and move forward. It seemed as if she spent days lying in the snow, but it could not be more than a minute or two. However, it was enough time for the people who were chasing her to get closer. She could hear the chatter between them while they tried to flank her.

I’m not going to give up!

She sped up her pace until she was jogging while trying to figure out what direction she was going. She could not afford doing a full circle and ending up near the place she had just escaped from. The almost inhuman effort to keep running was apparently taking its toll on her vision, because she could swear she saw flicking lights far beyond the trees. She pushed herself even more to get there as fast as possible, hoping for whoever was there would be a friend and not another enemy.

  


She had not known how she had gotten inside that tiny cell. Going to bed one Friday night in October had been the last thing she had been able to recall before waking up in that concrete box. She had been kept in oblivion for weeks while being tortured almost every single day. She had lost the track of time already when the man in charge had finally showed up. And he had been chatty, boasting of how he had been so clever to get her into this place. For a while that had been worse than any physical torment they had caused her.

  


* * *

She kept running; that little sparkle of hope encouraged her to force her body to move as fast as possible in her current state. The lights started to flicker even more, disappearing and appearing among the trees. They got a little bit bigger and they were the only thing that kept her focused, so focused that she did not noticed that the ground’s flatness turned into a steep slope leading ten feet down to a road. She tumbled down again. This time there was only a little bit of snow, and her body was abused by every stone and root which was sticking out from the dirt. She stopped rolling down in the middle of a road, not being able to move away to the side of it. She felt completely drained of energy, so she just laid there letting the frosty air to seep inside her. There were no lights she thought she had seen earlier. It was all a mirage.

I’m going to die here.

That thought made her lips curl up a little. Death meant that she would not be tortured again. It meant blissful peace that she craved so much, no pain, no screaming anymore, and no living in fear of what they might do to her. All she could feel right now was relief.

She closed her eyes and just waited for the end to come. Instead, she saw a very bright light hit her eyes through her eyelids and she heard the high pitched screeching of a car’s breaks. She did not move, lying still as if she was dead already. She could not speak at this moment, her body too cool and deprived of energy to be able to do anything besides the basic functions. She heard the door opening and closing, a heavy thud of boots hitting the road and then walking towards her. She could sense a large body of a person kneeling next to her to check if she was still alive.

Before this stranger could do anything, they emerged from behind the trees shouting to leave her alone, the slight rattling of their guns echoing in the crisp night air as they aimed them at the person next to her.

“Step away from it!” One of the men barked an order.

She had recognized his voice. It was the guard who usually escorted her from the cell to the lab. He was always very rough with her, especially when she could not keep up with his pace.

“Get in the car and drive away!”

“She needs to get to the hospital immediately.” The stranger turned out to be a man and his deep voice made her force her eyes open.

She could not see much, due to the fact that car’s headlights were so close to her face but she noticed that the stranger was still kneeling next to her, towering over her like a mama bear.

“It is government property. Drive away now or we will shoot you.”

She saw the stranger getting up and she felt a pang of panic taking over her body, making her chest to ache even more.

“H-help m-me…” she whispered not expecting him to hear her at all but apparently he did because he walked past her towards the guards.

“Call her “it” one more time, bub, and I’m gonna cut your goddamn head off,” the stranger growled in feral way.

“ _It_ is not a human,” the guard dared to say “it” for the third time.

There was a metallic sound, similar to the one that two knives make when their blades scratch each other. Then there was a mix of gunshots, screams, cutting noises, and bodies falling hard with a gut twisting sound of skulls being crushed. It lasted only a few minutes before eerie silence fell around her. She heard heavy footfalls coming her way. The stranger knelt by her side once again, this time he was blocking most of the headlights of his car so she was able to see him better. She noticed blood on his face and hands and a few cuts closing up while he leaned over her. He saw a look of pure terror in her eyes but he just assumed that she was afraid of what he was while all of she was scared of were two drops of his blood falling down on her face. It was more than enough to start the process. The one thing she had not wanted to experience ever again.


	3. Chapter 3

I Will Always Find You

Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters  
407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center  
Westchester County, NY  
  
Six months later

It was a little bit before the dawn in the middle of July. The sky started changing from navy blue to cerulean with hints of orange and pink above the spot where the sun was coming out. Elena was lying down on a gentle slope which ended with a narrow strip of sand along lake’s waterline.

The air was cool and its smell was intoxicating to her. She had been coming here a few times a week, mostly when she had had nightmares and could not fall asleep again. It was her secret place to hide so early in the morning.

Last night the nightmares had been very persistent and she was more tired than usual. When first rays of sun hit her skin, she closed her eyes and sighed happily while enjoying their warmth. They lulled her to sleep, encompassing her into a blanket of coziness.

She woke up a few hours later not really knowing what disturbed her rest until she looked to her left and she saw Logan sleeping a feet away from her. She carefully rolled onto her side to get a better view of him. At first, she thought about him as her personal hero, knowing that without his help she would not be here now. With every week passing by, she grew fond of him, getting to know more about him along the way. He was one of the few residents at the school who were not afraid of her. And they had a good reason to be scared, after she demolished her room during her sleep three times in a row. There was no danger of that anymore. Professor Xavier had partially bound her powers using his telepathic skills. Now, she was unable to use them unconsciously. However, the others were still keeping her at a distance. Elena was not surprised at all. She understood their fear and in all honesty, she was afraid of her abilities as well. Who would not be, if they could destroy things with a single thought and a bit of concentration? That was not the only thing she was able to do. She could also change one thing into something completely different just by manipulating the object’s molecules. When she was training alone to get a grip on that, she noticed that she could create almost anything she desired, like breathtaking spectacles of colors and shapes. But now her gaze was on a resting Logan.

“You shouldn’t watch people when they’re sleeping,” he spoke suddenly and Elena let out a muffled cry.

“Damn you!” She swatted his arm. “You scared me. How long were you awake?”

“Since you have woken up and started to move.”

She rolled on her back so he would not see her flushed face. She felt so embarrassed getting caught staring at him.

“What are you doing here anyway?” she asked, knowing that he was sent by Xavier.

“Your nightmares aren’t going away. You need to talk with someone, Elena.”

She swallowed as quietly as possible even though she was very well aware that his heightened hearing was going to catch it anyway. Problem was that she did not want to talk about her past. She wanted to start a new life, forget about everything that had happened to her.

“I don’t want to.” She got up and turned towards a narrow path leading along the lake.

It took Logan three seconds to jump on his feet and catch up with her. He grabbed Elena by her left arm and turned her around so she was facing him.

“But you have to,” he insisted. “Don’t you see what it does to you? At least let Charles to take a glimpse inside your mind.”

She shuddered despite the fact that air was already very warm. There was a reason why Xavier could not see her past. She hid it behind a big dam of pain and pain was his weakness, something he feared the most throughout his life. It was her only mechanism to defend herself from his telepathic abilities. She was not as much afraid of him seeing her suffering as she was of him getting to know her darkest desires to punish people who had hurt her. There was this tight, condensed ball of hatred hidden deep down at the bottom of her soul.

“It keeps me sane. It keeps me focused,” she replied finally, looking everywhere but at him. “All I want is to be left alone.” With that said, she wriggled her arm out of his grip and resumed her walking.

She heard his feral grunt and a few seconds later he was walking next to her, his arm brushing against hers.

“You can try to run and hide but I will always find you,” he spoke, his tone completely serious. “Listen, kid-”

“Why can’t you stop bothering me, Logan?” Elena stopped walking and faced him. “There’s nothing fun about my past. It’s something that I wish to not remember at all.”

      At her words, they both tried to stare the other down, standing maybe four feet apart from each other. It was so unnerving to a point that she felt an annoying tingly sensation in her palms and fingers indicating that her powers were on high alert and ready to be unleashed.

“Come on, hit me,” he was the first to break the silence between them.

“What?!”

“Attack me, Elena.” Logan took a step towards her. “I see that you can barely control your powers now. So hit me as hard as you need but start talking to me! It will only get worse if you’ll keep it bottled up inside. Come on!” He yelled the last two words.

She gave in and unleashed them, a deadly combination of telekinesis and molecular manipulation; the abilities which made her a lethal threat to any living being. A long scream, full of pain and anguish, left her mouth when her powers missed him entirely and destroyed a large tree eight feet behind him. The entire tree trunk exploded, turning the wood into fine dust that was taken by the wind and carried above the lake.

All the anger she had felt was gone now. The only thing left was the fear clearly visible in her eyes. She wanted him to stop asking questions.

“I-I’m sorry,” she whispered and then just ran away from him.

She was running as fast as she could on the uneven ground of the narrow path she was on. She knew that he provoked her to attack him but she felt that she should not have fallen for that kind of a trap; that she should not have had to act on her emotions for the sake of others and herself. Her biggest fear was hurting some of the people who had helped her and accepted her for who she was. For the last six months she had been trying to keep her emotions in check, knowing that there was no better fuel for her powers than her anger, pain, and fear. And now she failed and let her emotions get the better of her.

She heard Logan’s heavy footsteps somewhere behind her and she dared to glance over her shoulder. That was a mistake. She lost her footing and tumbled down a steep slope, her body getting heavily bruised by roots and stones sticking out from the ground. She landed on a small patch of grass, hitting an old fallen tree trunk. A sickening sound of bones cracking like twigs filled her ears along with an aggravating ringing just before th excruciating pain hit her like a freight train and everything went black.

“…na?”

She felt sick. Her body hurt and the ringing in her ears seemed to grow louder. She heard male voice. It was so distant at first that she was not able to understand what he was saying. The noise had become unbearable. Then all of the sudden, it stopped along with the feelings of sickness and pain.

“Elena?! Wake up!”

It was then when she heard a sharp inhale. She forced her eyes open to see Logan’s face hovering a few inches above hers. He looked surprised while he kept staring at her.

“How is this possible?” he muttered while his fingers traced a line on the right side of her face.

“What’s possible?” she murmured as she tried to get up but he kept her in place.

“Don’t move. You may have some broken bones.”

“I feel fine. Move away, I want to sit at least. I have enough bruises for today, no need to add some more over my kidneys.”

Logan leaned back and helped her sit. His eyes never left her face. His gaze was so intense that it was impossible not to ask questions about that.

“Are you going to tell me what’s going on? You’re staring at me as if I just got a third eye.”

“You’ve healed.”

“I did WHAT?!”

“You fell down. I heard your bones breaking and smelled your blood before I even got here. For while, you were dead and then your body started to heal. Just like-”

“Just like yours,” Elena interrupted him.

Her thoughts went back to the night she had been saved from her captors. There was not much she remembered between running through the forest and waking up in the school’s med bay.

Just two drops of blood. Just two tiny drops.

She feared what could happen to her after his blood got mixed with hers. It was part of some of her nightmares. Having claws unsheathing from between her knuckles was not something she was looking forward to. They looked cool on someone like Logan, but not on her. At least the fates decided to take pity on her and give her something harmless; a power that would not hurt anyone.

She got to her feet, ready to go back to her room but her legs felt so weak that they gave in after one step. If not for Logan, she would have fallen face first on the ground. The next second she scooped her into his arms and got them both back on the path above. Elena tried to free herself and walk on her own, but he would not let her.

“You’re too weak right now,” he simply said while carrying her back to the school’s building.

* * *

Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters was a private school for young mutants and a refuge for those who were scared of their powers, or their appearance, or of regular people. It was located just outside of Salem Center in Westchester County, a bit more than an hour away from New York City.

The mansion itself was a property of the Xavier family for decades before Charles decided to transform it into a school for mutants in the seventies. It was destroyed many times over the years and always rebuilt with a few new expansions. At first, it was only a one central part but with the growing number of students, teachers, and residents, they had added to the East and West wings, enough to accommodate everyone living there and to have spare guest rooms. It was a huge building, but at the same time it felt cozy, warm, and safe.

The closest way inside was through Storm’s hothouse that was attached to a gable wall off the West wing. To Elena’s relief, there was nobody there when Logan carried her through the maze of greenery. Then just outside of it, a turn right and a climb of the stairs to the third floor. He walked the whole length of the hallway leading through the middle of the West wing, passing the door leading to Elena’s room and entered his own.

“Logan, what are you doing?” she asked when he kicked the door closed and walked towards his bed where he placed her gently on the top of the covers. “Why did you bring me to your room?” She sat up and made a move to swing her legs to the floor when his hand caught them mid-air.

“You’re gonna stay here until you start talking to me, darlin’.”

“I’m covered in dirt and blood. I need to take shower and change my clothes.”

“You can use my bathroom. I’ll bring some clothes from your room,” he offered and that caused Elena to blush when her willful mind showed her an image of Logan going through her dresser to find some lingerie for her. “Do you need help to get to the bathroom?”

“No!” Her reply came way too fast and a bit too loud, which earned her a surprise glance from him. “I can get there on my own. I feel fine,” she added quickly.

Logan got up, letting her legs free, and then he spoke, “You’ll find clean towels under the sink.”

It was all he said before he left the room. Elena let out the breath she was holding. She slowly moved, testing if she could stand up and walk. She would not admit to Logan that her body still felt weird and kind of weak. She went into his bathroom and closed the door behind her. One glance into the mirror showed her how much dirt and blood was on her face and body. She found a fresh towel and placed it on a rack next to the shower door. She took off her boots and started to peel off her clothes. She could feel the wet spots where blood soaked into the fabric but she did not want to look at them. Then she turned on the water and when it was warm enough, she stepped into the shower stall. She stood there for a few minutes letting her hair and skin soak before she took Logan’s shower gel/shampoo and started to vigorously wash her body and hair. The harder she scrubbed, the harder her hands were shaking. Then shock hit her with full force and she slid down the glass wall, wrapping her arms around her knees. She looked at her shaking palms as if she expected the bone claws to come out from between her knuckles. When nothing happened, she felt relief washing over her the water from the shower did. It did not change the fact that she had died earlier nor had come back to life a few moments later.

How many more times is this going to happen? How much more is it gonna take for my body or mind to break into small pieces? How much more pain do I have to endure for this to end?

She remembered what had happened that night when she had been rescued. However, since she had woken up in Xavier’s school, she had not experienced any new abilities, not until now. People were already afraid of her powers, even though they had never showed it in any way. Elena, though, sensed it in how they spoke to her and how they kept their distance from her. It was not anything major, just tiny details. Even Jean Grey was wary of her despite the fact that she was a very powerful telekinetic. The only people who were not scared of her powers were Logan and Professor Xavier.

Elena wanted to cry but she could not. Her eyes remained dry while her chest hurt from unreleased sobs. All the tears she had left wre in the cell she was kept for all those years. The only thing that she could do now was to just sit under the shower and let the water to wash over her body.

A knock on a bathroom door startled her.

“Elena? Are you okay?” Logan’s voice was soft and she caught a note of concern in his voice.

“Yeah, I’m fine!” she called out loudly for him to hear her words through the sound of shower.

“I’m leaving your clothes by the door,” he replied.

“Thanks!”

When she opened bathroom door to grab her clothes after she was done with her shower, she found her hair dryer lying on the top of them. Logan’s thoughtfulness made her smile. He was not like the other men she knew, though he rarely showed that to the world but when he did, it was always something small just like bringing a hair dryer for her.

After she put on the clothes, blow-dried her hair, and cleaned up the mess, she left the bathroom to find Logan’s room empty. The door to the hallway was half opened so she knew he was going to come back soon. Elena decided to gather her dirty clothes, take them to her room, and put them into the laundry basket in her bathroom. She pulled them into a messy pile and held them with one hand while in the other, she held her boots. She was barefoot when she stepped out of Logan’s room but the school’s hallways were padded with a thick, blue fitted carpet that kept her feet warm. Her room was right next to Logan’s so it took her less than two minutes to get there and leave the load of dirty clothes in the bathroom. For a few seconds she was considering staying inside, locking the door, and burying herself under the duvet and a couple of blankets, pretending that there was nothing outside her bedroom walls. She knew that it would never work considering how Logan was determined to make her talk. Elena looked at her palms remembering how she lost control over her powers and destroyed that tree as if it was a castle made of sand. Professor Xavier made sure she would not use her power unconsciously and helped her to control them in the safe environment of the Danger Room. Now, she knew that she had only an illusion of control and the same emotions which fueled her abilities also were her undoing. Logan was right when he insisted that she had to talk with someone. It had been so long since she had a conversation with someone and she was unsure if she was still able to do it. The last few years taught her to keep everything to herself as much as possible, trust no one, and rely only on herself. She wanted to trust people from the school but at the same time, she was too scared. It was irrational and she was aware of that but she could not help it. She locked her inner self so deep and tightly that she did not know if she was able to let it free again.

She left her room and was closing the door when she saw Logan coming back with a tray in his hands. There were two steaming cups sitting on it and he was concentrating to not spill whatever was inside them. When Logan passed by the main staircase, he stopped abruptly and looked up to see her in the hallway with her hand on the knob of the door leading to her bedroom. Elena felt like a deer caught in the headlights. She stood there unmoving for a few seconds and then her hand dropped down. It made him start to walk again. After he was almost at his doorway, she took a step towards him and then another one.

“I just put my dirty clothes into the laundry basket,” she said while walking to his room’s door and opening it wider for him.

Elena stepped his room first, wanting him to know that she had not planned to run away while he had been in the kitchen. When she was walking by him the smell of her favorite brand of Earl Grey tea hit her. She was curious of how he knew which brand she liked the most. Logan entered the room and went straight to the bay window where there was comfortably looking seat. Elena closed the door and followed him. He put the tray on the middle cushion and handed her one of the cups.

“I thought that you may want to something warm to drink,” he said when they both sat in the opposite ends of the seat.

“Thanks.” She wrapped her hands around her cup and took a careful sip of tea.

The taste of bergamot mixed with lemon hit her tongue and her eyelids drooped down while she was enjoying her tea. She knew, however, that she was not going to avoid talking about her past with Logan.

He was sitting across her. His legs stretched along the seat and crossed at the ankles. A smiled flashed on her lips when she realized that she mimicked his way of sitting. The seat was long enough that there was about half a meter of free space between their feet.

Logan seemed to be fully relaxed but she got this vibe from him saying that he was waiting for her to start talking. Even though it was the beginning of July and it was way over twenty Celsius degrees outside. She shivered, mostly because she was thinking about her past. It did not go unnoticed by Logan and before she could say anything, he put his cup on a little shelf behind him, got up, and fetched a blanket which he wrapped around her shoulders. Elena smiled at him and sipped some more tea while he sat again.

“My parents have never been very affectionate. I was not the son my father wanted. They tried for years to have another child but without any success. They argued a lot about it, thinking that I couldn’t hear them but I did. Father blamed mother for giving birth to a girl as if she was responsible for my gender. I think that was the reason behind their decision to get rid of me.” She stared into her cup not wanting to see Logan’s face right now. “What you’re going to hear now I was told by someone else so I don’t know how much truth is in it. Over five years ago, I went to my bed to be awoken in a three by two meters cell with concrete walls and no windows. I had no idea where I was and what happened to me. Then it got worse.”

Her grip on the cup tightened making her knuckles turn white. For now Logan only knew that she was kidnapped and held in a small cell. When she looked up and into his eyes, she saw a flash of anger inside of them as if he wanted to punish her captors.

“Can you promise me something?”

“Yeah, what is it?” His reply was immediate and that did not go unnoticed by Elena.

“Promise me that you won’t storm out from here before I’m done, that you won’t do anything impulsive no matter what you’re going to hear.”

“Why do you want me to promise that?” he asked, leaning towards her but not leaving his spot.

“Because if I were you I would go there and rip them all apart one by one just like you did it to those men the night you’ve found me.”

Elena could not read his eyes anymore, the mix of emotions too complicated to be understood. She lifted her cup and sipped more of her tea, enjoying the warmth it provided. When she looked at him again Logan gave her a nod which she took as him making the promise not to act on his emotions.

“I don’t know how long I was held in that cell,” she continued her story. “Hours maybe, but it felt like days. Then they came for me. Four armed men in protective gear, their faces hidden behind the masks. One of them warned me that disobedience was going to be severely punished and then he showed me a few pictures of someone else beaten almost to death. I’m still wondering how I managed not to throw up on him. I guess I was too scared that he would hurt me for that.

"They dragged me into a lab. I was being thoroughly tested and it kept happening for weeks. Sometimes I was passing out from exhaustion and pain only to wake up in my cell hours later when they were coming to take me back to the lab for another series of tortures. I had no idea then what they were looking for. Nobody ever talked to me besides the guards who were just barking orders at me to get up, get down, or walk faster. Then one day, when they took me again to the lab, there was another man, a bit older than the people who worked there. He was wearing regular clothes but I could feel that he was the one who was running the whole thing. When he saw me, he smiled in that creepy way that made me want to run away immediately. He was so full of himself that it was ridiculous.

“That day I was told that I wasn’t human, but a mutant and that my mutation was so unusual that he had to have me no matter what. He told me that he played on my parents’ fear of mutants. They fabricated some evidence that I hurt some people, making me someone very dangerous. Since I was almost of legal age, he paid them not to report me missing but telling everyone that I ran away with some boy. I was never too close to them so nobody suspected anything. Nobody was ever looking for me.”

Elena put down the cup on the window sill, her hands shaking so much that she almost dropped it. She already had enough of reliving the last five years of her life.

“Telekinesis and molecular manipulation are not the powers I was born with,” she spoke again not daring to look at Logan. The thought of seeing pity in his eyes was too painful. “They weren’t also activated when they were torturing me. From what I was told, my only natural mutation is copying powers of others when their blood gets into my bloodstream. That made me so unique that Stryker did every--”

“Stryker?!” Logan abruptly got on his feet, his fists clenched and anger visible into his eyes, both gestures making Elena feel uneasy.

“Yeah, that’s how he introduced himself. Colonel William Stryker. You know him?”

“Better than I would want to.” Logan replied while the claws slowly came out from between the knuckles of his right hand.

Elena knew that his entire skeleton and claws were covered in adamantium - a very rare and virtually-indestructible alloy – but what she did not know until now was how he got it. Apparently, she and Logan had more in common than they had thought.

She got up and stepped closer to him reaching with her hand for his right one, wrapping her fingers around his without any hesitation. His sharp claws were not bothering her at all.

“I’m so sorry, Logan,” she whispered her gaze focused on his eyes.

"I’m sorry too for what he did to you. If I had known he was still alive, I would’ve killed him long time ago.” He took a deep breath in and Elena heard his claws retracting.

Logan’s fingers intertwined with hers, the grip of his strong big hand firm and warm. She looked at their joined hands and a small smile graced her lips.

“Then we would never have meet and I wouldn’t even know that I’m a mutant,” she spoke quietly. “And despite everything that has happened to me I like my powers and how they allow me to change things.”

“What about the healing factor? Is it another thing that Stryker did to you?”

Elena shook her head no. She was a bit afraid how Logan was going to react to what she was about to tell him now.

“I think that I got it from you.” She looked up to meet his gaze. “I don’t remember much from _that_ night but when you got back to me after killing those guards and leaned over me I saw two drops of your blood fall down on me. The process of me absorbing someone’s abilities is excruciatingly painful. It feels like some power is tearing you apart on molecular level and then put back together but slightly different. I didn’t remember this happening but the Professor told me that I was unconscious for over a week. Then, when I woke up I didn’t have any new powers so I assumed that somehow your blood didn’t mix with mine. Apparently I was wrong and--”

She did not finish being pulled into Logan’s embrace, his arms wrapping around her tightly while he mumbled his apologies. It took everything for Elena not to have an emotional breakdown. It had been so long since she had been hugged by another human being. She wanted to stay like that forever or just for a few more minutes. It was inevitable that Logan was going to move away at some point and she did not want to act like a clingy monkey so she stepped away first.

“I feel tired so I’m gonna rest for a few hours,” she spoke quietly. “Thank you for the tea.” Then she left his room, quietly closing the door behind her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For my friend Matt who's the best Jubes ever! Thanks for the tips on her. ;)

We Are the Heroes

_New York City_

_Ten days later_

Having a chat with Professor Xavier was unavoidable. Elena had to inform him what had happened to her and that she had one more power inside her body. She left out a few details like Logan provoking her to attack him and that she had turned a tree into a bunch of dust. She was relieved that it was a passive ability, knowing she could not handle a third active one. Xavier listened to her and then gave her a few pieces of advice based on his experiences with Logan. He was very supportive and she felt guilty for not letting him to know what had been done to her. The Professor had his own share of painful memories and she did not want to add more to that pile, especially since she had just found the only other person in the whole world who understood what she had been through and who wanted their torturer dead.

She even wondered who would be first to kill him if they had a chance to do that. For most of her life, Elena could not even imagine taking someone else’s life but, now she would not hesitate being given a chance to face Stryker again. She wanted revenge. She wanted him to pay for his crimes, to suffer even more than she and Logan had suffered, to see him being slowly ripped apart piece by piece.

And speaking of Logan... Beyond his initial astonishment, he seemed to accept the fact she had a new power that came from him. He was a bit overprotective at first, behaving as if she was made of glass and she could have a break down after she confessed to him about her past. He sensed that she did not tell him everything and she knew that it was bothering him in some way but he was trying not to press her for more. Instead, he was waiting for her to tell more.

More than a week passed by in what it seemed like a blink of an eye. It was a very hot part of July and Elena stayed inside the cool walls of the school’s building. It was late Saturday morning and she was in the kitchen munching on the last slice of a toast with butter and strawberry jam when a few students walked into, all dressed up to go out. Kitty Pryde was all in black except for a silver-gray t-shirt. She looked great in her black jeans paired with black motorcycle boots giving her this do-not-even-think-to-mess-with-me vibe. Behind her was Peter Rasputin, wearing a black t-shirt and the same color jeans and also motorcycle boots. He was tall and muscular while Kitty was slim and much smaller than he was. She could easily slide under his arm. Next to them was Jubilation Lee or Jubilee, as she liked to be called, the school’s colorful butterfly. With her bright yellow t-shirt splashed with glitter and big circle earrings, also yellow, she was a huge contrast to the pair standing next to her and to Bobby Drake, another member of this pack, who was standing behind her. He was there alone, so that meant that his girlfriend Marie D’Ancanto was visiting her family. Bobby was wearing a light blue t-shirt and blue jeans with a pair of blue sneakers, his hair being a bit ruffled as always.

“There you are!” Jubilee exclaimed, with a high level of excitement that was so characteristic for her.

Elena looked at the girl with bafflement. It had been the very first time someone was so thrilled to see her, in a positive way anyway. She fought the urge to look behind her as if Jubes was talking to someone else but there was not anyone else in the kitchen besides her so the girl was addressing her.

“Do you need something?” she asked after swallowing the last bite of her toast.

“Yes! You!” Jubilee was bouncing on her heels, excitement oozing from her way too much to Elena’s liking.

“Jubes, you’re scaring her,” Peter scolded his friend though Jubilee did not seem bothered at all.

“What she wants to say is that we’re taking you shopping with us,” Kitty spoke, giving Elena a small smile.

She wanted to tell them that she had no money but as fast as she opened her mouth she closed it. Professor Xavier had given her a job at school; it was not a teaching position but a rather boring archival work, however, the salary was quite generous. Elena did not mind it since she had not had a chance to finish school before being kidnapped. She was a fast learner though and with some help from Xavier and other teachers she was able to take the SAT exam in June and pass it with quite a good result. It was enough for her to have some nice college options but she knew that she could not do it before having the full control over her powers. Since she did not need to pay a rent she saved enough money to go on any shopping spree Jubilee came up with.

“Are Jean and Scott coming too?” she asked while cleaning the table and loading the plate and the coffee mug into the dishwasher.

“No, just us,” Bobby replied, car keys dangling from his fingers. “Come on, Elle, it’s gonna be fun.”

“Aren’t you scared of me?” Elena looked at all of them with vacillation.

Everyone at school was avoiding her after she completely destroyed her room the very first night out of a medical room. Even the adults were cautious around her and now four of people more or less her age wanted to spend time with her.

“Why would we be, silly?” Jubilee laughed as if Elena told her a good joke. “It’s summer break and we really need to do something just for fun. Plus you need some new clothes that are not gray or black if you want to get Logan’s full attention.”

“Jubes!” It came from Peter, Kitty, and Bobby unison.

“What?! He brought her to school after saving her life. He’s been around her so often that it can be counted as stalking her. And I saw him carrying Elena from the park last week. He has the hots for her, obvs.”

Elena wanted to disappear now, her face redder than a tomato from embarrassment. _She has no filter whatsoever!_ Apparently that was also what Bobby thought when he put his hand over Jubilee’s mouth, after tossing the car keys to Peter, successfully gagging her and preventing more of Miss Lee’s observations flying out of her mouth without any control.

“Sorry about her,” Kitty gave Elena an apologizing smile. “We’re still trying to teach Jubes to think first and then talk.”

Jubilee gave her friend a murderous glare and she tried to say something but Bobby’s hand muffled whatever she wanted to tell.

“It’s not really working,” Bobby noticed and whispered something into Jubes’ ear that calmed her down immediately.

Elena suspected that it was some kind of threat since it was the only thing that could pacify the girl’s fiery temper so fast.

The next thing she knew, she was being dragged to the garage and pushed into the backseat of the black SUV with Bobby on her left and Jubilee on the right. Kitty was sitting in the front with Peter driving. As it turned out she had been in Elena’s room and had brought her backpack into the car with the wallet stashed inside. She handed it to Elena once they were on the road leading to New York City.

* * *

They stopped at one of the biggest shopping centers in the city. There were hundreds of stores selling everything from groceries and children toys to jewelry and cars. Elena welcomed cool breeze from the AC units when they entered the center after a short walk from the underground parking lot. It was summertime so there were a lot of teenagers and college students wandering around and taking advantage of their vacation.

Jubilee wanted to ditch Peter and Bobby but both of them protested and declared that they were sticking together.

“Fine!” Jubes said with a flash of disappointment that was washed off soon when she came up with another _brilliant_ idea. “We can start our shopping spree at the lingerie department. Something red and lacey for a start. What do you think?”

Peter face was flushed, Bobby kept his cool, and Kitty was having a very hard time trying not to laugh out loud.

“You should see your face, Pete,” she said after taking a few deep breaths to cool down a bit.

Elena tried to hide her amusement, failing miserably. They reminded her of some friends she had in junior high school. Sadly, they became distant during their sophomore year joining different groups and focusing on new things and hobbies. She wondered what they were doing now, realizing how much of her life was lost because of one mad scientist.

She still did not know how Professor Xavier managed to get her a new set of documents without her being thoroughly questioned by authorities about her whereabouts during the last five years. He went so far as to asking her if she wanted to change her last name to get a fresh start. It was a very tempting option but Elena declined to do that. A part of her wanted those people who were responsible for her imprisonment, including her parents, to know that she survived and she was fine now. Even though she was aware that it would be a terrible idea, she could not stop thinking about showing up at her parents’ doorstep just to tell them what horrible people they were and leave them with knowing of all of the unspeakable things that had been done to her and that they failed as parents to protect her.

“Can’t we just hang out?” she asked looking at Jubilee. “I really don’t need more clothes.”

“You’re in dire need of colors, Elle,” Jubes insisted grabbing her hand and dragging her into the nearest shop that had a lingerie section.

Kitty was laughing openly now, after seeing the terrified look on Elena’s face, but she followed them along with Peter and Bobby who exchanged glances, knowing way too well that they dug their own graves with their earlier declaration of going everywhere together.

The guys decided to check the part of the lingerie section that was for men, much to Elena’s relief. Jubilee had way too much fun finding all the most inappropriate underwear sets the store had put on the racks. Elena tried to check some shelves with sports lingerie but she was dragged to the ones that were half transparent or consisted of scraps of fabric or worse – lace.

“Seriously?” she finally spoke up after twenty minutes of rummaging through the store’s assortment. “Only strippers would wear those.” She pointed towards deep red bra and panties made of fine lace that left absolutely nothing to the imagination.

“Jubes, I think that you went too far with this,” Kitty interjected while taking a hanger from her and putting it back on the rack. “It was fun to look for the most exposing things and asking Pete and Bobby what they are thinking and seeing them getting so embarrassed but tell me, would you wear it yourself? Or even show this on you to a guy you date?”

It was funny to see Jubilee’s face getting so red. Elena had a very hard time to not start laughing. Jubes sighed deeply and shook her head no.

“I wouldn’t. I’m sorry Elle. I just wanted you to have some fun.”

“I had a lot of fun,” Elena assured her. “What about me choosing something for myself here and you go to the guys and find the most embarrassing boxer shorts for them?”

That idea resulted in sneaky gleam in Jubes’ eyes and she grabbed Kitty by hand and dragged her to the opposite side of the shop. That gave Elena some time to find something nice and comfortable. She chose matching sports bras and panties, deciding that the comfort of wearing them was more important than anything else. Most of them were black but she added a few dark purples, forest greens, and navy blues. However, she couldn’t resist grabbing two sets of lacy lingerie – one deep red and the other one emerald green. She did not believe what the girls were saying about her and Logan. He treated her as a friend, nothing more.

When she walked towards checkout counter, she felt as if someone was staring at her but when she looked around there was nobody doing that; only two women talking about sleepwear for toddlers.

“Weird…” she mumbled.

“What’s weird?” Jubes was giggling so much that she could barely speak.

“Nothing. What’s so funny?”

“Peter and Bobby wanted to see what we’ve chosen for them but Kitty phased through them when they tried to catch her and see what she was holding. Nobody saw that because it happened in the changing room where they chased her, but that was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen. Well, that I’ve seen today.”

“Aren’t we supposed… you know… not do _it_ in public?”

Jubilee waved her hands dismissively.

“As I’ve told you, nobody saw that and there were no security cameras.” She smiled and then suddenly her face went unusually serious. “We’re safe, Elle.”

That made Elena think that it was not a coincidence that they all took her on this shopping trip. Jubilee was good at distracting people, Kitty could phase through almost anything, Bobby’s ice powers were able to freeze people or create ice walls strong enough to keep people on the other side long enough for them to disappear, and Peter was not only super strong but also virtually indestructible in his organic metal form. What she did not know was if they were here to protect her or to protect other people from her.

After paying for all the lingerie they’ve bought and the guys expressing their big dissatisfaction that they did not get to see what Kitty and Jubilee picked from the men’s underwear section, they decided to split up for the next hour. Peter and Bobby wanted to check the gaming store and Kitty mercifully allowed it, being aware that Jubilee tested them to their limits in the first store. Plus they would need them later to take all the bags back to the car before going to grab something to eat at the food court.

“I knew they weren’t gonna survive that store.” Jubes flashed them the cat-ate-the-canary smile. “We don’t need a babysitter, right, Elena? Elle?”

“Huh?” Elena just realized that Jubilee was asking her something.

“What’s wrong?” Kitty interjected, her eyes scanning the crowd around them.

“I don’t know. I just have this weird feeling that someone is watching me but there isn’t anyone around looking even slightly familiar to me.”

She knew that someone was there observing her. She was not a paranoid person despite everything she had been through. It was more this irritating itch between her shoulder blades that was getting on her nerves than the fact that somebody was stalking her.

“You’re just nervous after, you know…” Jubes said quietly.

“Maybe,” Elena smiled at her. “So, where to now?”

“H&M!”

“Diesel!”

Kitty and Jubilee said unison and at first Elena did not know who said what. She knew both shops and what they were selling. The prices were similar so it was up to her which one to choose and hopefully not offend one of the girls.

“Diesel,” she said finally. “I’ve never liked fancy clothing with puffy sleeves and frills, no offence.”

“None taken.” Jubes looked even more excited than earlier while Kitty just sighed and rolled her eyes at her overjoyed friend. “Come on!” She led the way.

“She said H&M only because she wanted to give you some choice,” Kitty whispered to Elena and winked at her. “She hates that store with a passion.”

“You simply can’t go any slower, can you?” Jubes showed up behind them, pushed herself between her companions linking her arms with theirs, and then excitedly dragged them into the Diesel store.

They went from one section to the other, choosing clothes for Elena to try on and when she protested that they should choose something for themselves, they told her that they were going to do that while she was trying on the ones she carried in her arms. To Elena’s relief they did not required her to show them every piece she was going to try on so she could choose her new clothes in peace.

They were right that she was wearing mostly black or almost black shirts and pants. It was a part of her defensive system – to blend in and not stand out, to be able to hide in the shadows, unnoticed by anyone. It was safer this way but she was aware that it was not healthy in the long run. With a heavy sigh she started to sort the pile of clothes according to their colors. She put aside every piece that was orange, yellow or pink. Those definitely were not her colors; they were too bright and flashy for her taste. However, she left all the reds, purples, greens, and blues. One of the red shirts definitely caught her eye. It was a simple fitted tee with short sleeves and a black inscription that was blending into the fabric and it was hard to read it in the rather poor light provided in the changing rooms. Elena actually liked how the shirt matched her black jeans. For the first time, she thought that she was grateful for this shopping trip. She quickly tried on the other clothes, sorting them into two more stacks of those she wanted to buy and those she was not going to take. The rest of the time in the room, she spent on folding and hanging shirts, pants, and jackets she was going to put back on the shelves and hangers. She did not want to be one of those customers who always left a total mess when they were done in a changing room, leaving the cleaning to the store’s staff. In the end she had way too many items to put back and to take to the register than she could handle by herself.

“Need some help?” Kitty asked from behind the door which Elena immediately opened.

“Yeah, could you take this for me until I’m done with taking the rest back where we found them?” she asked, handing her the clothes she had chosen.

“Sure, no problem.”

“You didn’t buy anything for yourself?” Elena asked Kitty while trying to hold all the hangers in one hand and taking the stack of the folded pants in the other, with a tiny bit of help from her telekinetic powers since nobody could see her do that.

“I did. Jubes has my bag. We were here last month so we didn’t need much new stuff anyway. Let’s get this done so we can go eat. I’m starving. There’s also a movie theater here so maybe we can go and see a movie?”

“Okay, but no sequels or any series movies. I’m still far behind catching up with everything.” Elena blushed, embarrassed with her lack of knowledge of current pop culture trends.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean-” Kitty started to apologize.

“It’s fine. Let’s go.”

She did not want to bring up bad memories while they were having so much fun. It took them about ten minutes to put away all the clothes Elena did not choose to buy. Paying for the ones she wanted went fast and the girls met with Jubilee who was waiting for them at the entrance. Then the girls decided to drag the guys out of the gaming store. Both of them were also carrying a bag and they refused to let the girls to take a sneak peek inside.

“You’ll see it tonight,” Bobby said with an enigmatic smile. “Where to now?”

“Food court,” Kitty replied while taking bags from Jubilee and a surprised Elena. “But first Peter and I are gonna take the bags to the car. We’ll meet at the food court. Find us a table.”

Before any of them could protest, Peter took Bobby’s bag and he and Kitty were heading towards the exit to the parking lot. The rest of the group went to the second floor to the food court that was in the back of the mall. There were mostly fast-food types of restaurants, situated one by another in a circle shape with a few dozens of tables filling the free space in the middle. They saw a few chain restaurants selling burgers, pizza, and fried chicken. The rest of them were small ones providing Italian, Chinese, and Indian food.

They went from one end to the other, looking at the menus and discussing what they would want to try. After that, they found a table big enough to fit them all comfortably.

“I can’t decide between Chinese or Indian food,” Elena said, looking in the direction the Chinese restaurant first and then at the Indian one.

“What about taking both of them?” Bobby suggested while he sat opposite of her.

“I wouldn’t be able to eat them both.”

Despite the fact that it had been six months since she escaped, her body was still getting used to bigger portions of her meals. Stryker had not given her enough food, just to weaken her even more and prevent her from fighting back. It did not actually work after all but five years of imprisonment left an imprint on how her body worked.

“I have an idea!” Jubilee almost bounced in her chair at the head of the table. “We go there an order one Chinese and one Indian and ask them to split both into two plates. That way you won’t have to choose which one you want more. I’m taking the second halves because I came up with this fantastic way to solve your problem. Deal?”

“Deal!” Elena shook Jubes’ extended hand.

“You and your crazy ideas, Sparky,” Bobby commented and moved sideways in his chair when Jubes went to kick him under the table. “Thanks for proving this.”

Jubilee just stuck out her tongue at him.

“We have to go. Now!”

Elena almost jumped out of her skin when she heard Kitty’s breathless voice behind her back.

“What’s going on?” Bobby asked while getting up from his chair with Jubilee and Elena following suit.

“Four black SUVs just pulled in the parking lot. We thought at first they were some security guards to collect money or protect some celebrity, but then we saw that they have military grade gear and automatic rifles, full masks on their faces. Come on, we don’t have much time to get the hell out of here. Pete’s waiting by the emergency exit. We can get out through the service hallways.”

They jumped up and followed in the direction Pryde pointed them. Bobby and Jubes went first with Elena and Kitty right behind them.

“I thought someone was watching me,” Elena spoke, trying not to glance over her shoulder or to look nervous. “Do you think they-”

“I don’t know.” Kitty interrupted her. “We’ll think about it when we’re outta here.”

Elena’s heart was pounding hard inside her chest. She had not experienced this since her escape six months earlier. It surprised her that she did not fear for herself but for her companions. For the last few years, she had nobody on her side and now there were so many people who cared about her and wanted to spend time with her.

They were moving to the other side of the building when they heard screams from the first floor. Bobby took a quick glance down over the railing while they were passing by the escalators. People started to panic around them and they ran into the stores asking the staff to close the steel blinds.

“They are clearing the first floor,” Bobby told them. “How far away is the exit?”

“Thirty meters, more or less.”

They almost managed to get there when they were surprised by a group of mercenaries coming at them from the same direction where they were heading. People around them ran away leaving them against six opponents armed to the teeth.

“On the ground!” One of them barked an order. “Try to use your damn powers and you’ll be all dead!”

“We’re screwed,” Bobby muttered but he did not make any move to comply.

“No shit, Sherlock.” Jubilee snorted.

“Do it now or we will shoot you all! We just want her.” The one who spoke earlier pointed his gun at Elena who immediately felt sick realizing who those men were. “The rest of you freaks can go.”

“Who are you calling freaks, you fuckin’ dumbasshole?” Jubes stepped to the front, tiny sparks jumping between her fingertips.

Then a few things happened at the same time. Mercenaries raised their guns, their fingers pulling the triggers. Kitty started to phase through the floor while Jubilee’s famous fireworks exploded in the faces of the masked men blinding them. The door on their left that led to a service hallway fell out from its hinges when Peter in his metal form burst through them. Bobby turned into his ice form and started to create an ice wall to protect them from bullets.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been already told that the ending of this chapter is mean. Sorry, but writers LOVE cliffhangers. ]:->


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to Ever_Dreamer for beta-reading this story.

Let’s Get a Little Bit Louder

New York City

At a shopping mall, where the deepest shithole of hell broke loose

Elena stood there watching everything happening in slow motion. There she found herself stepping forward, grabbing Jubilee’s shoulder, and pushing her down on the ground while raising the other hand and stopping the bullets mid flight just before sending all of them back towards the mercenaries. She doubled their speed and though the assailants had Kevlar vests, the impact was so big that they all fell on the ground, getting knocked out for a while.

The slow-motion-like moment ended in a blink of an eye. Kitty did not manage to phase through the floor entirely and now she resurfaced from it. Bobby’s ice wall melted away without leaving a single drop of water. Jubilee was pissed off because of the forced fall. Peter joined them, still in his silvery metal form.

“You should all go to the car and drive as far away from here as possible,” Elena told them, carefully watching how the enemies were trying to get up.

“We’re not leaving you here all alone,” Jubes protested after she was back on her feet again.

She was concurred by Kitty and Bobby while Peter remained silent.

“They have guns with mutant cure. One dart and you’re done. Your powers are gone forever. I’m not going to be responsible for that. They want me, not you.”

What she really wanted to say was that it was her fight, not theirs. Elena did not want to risk their lives. She did not want to risk anyone’s life for that matter, just her own. And with her new healing abilities, she was not as scared of those men, as she would be without them.

“I’ll stay with Elena,” Peter spoke. “You go now and wait for us two blocks west from here.”

Jubilee was still protesting quite loudly when Kitty and Bobby just simply dragged her with them through the busted door.

“You’re gonna be okay?” Peter asked Elena while he was still glancing at their enemies that were getting back on their feet.

“More than ever,” she said while she rubbed her fingers now tingling with powers that were bubbling inside her body. “Let’s see how high they’re gonna fly.”

Soon there were red and black streaks of energy swirling like flames around her fingers and palms. She was not aware how much her emotions were affecting how her powers were manifesting. The darker they were, the darker the energy emanating from her body was. Peter, being an artist, took a notice of that. He was the one who trained with her in the Danger Room. His organic metal form could easily withstand most of Elena’s attacks so he was the most suitable opponent for her besides Logan. They did not talk much outside the training room. He was not that type of a guy to talk about the weather and Elena was not a chatty person, keeping mostly to herself. Those three times she destroyed her room was not helping her either when it came to making friends. Even after getting help from the Professor, Peter saw how other students still kept her at a distance. His friend Rogue understood why Elena preferred not getting attached to anyone. Marie’s powers were dangerous for others; one touch and she could drain not only mutants’ powers but also any human life energy. She paid for it dearly afterwards, being able to feel them inside her head for a very long time. Peter sometimes wondered what the price was that Elena had to pay for her abilities.

And now he watched the red and black energy flames surrounding her palms and going up her forearms, swirling around her upper limbs and pulsing as if they had life of their own. Colossus had never seen anything like it before but from what he knew, there was nobody else like Elena before. He saw her crouch; one leg put forward, the other one stretched out behind her. For some, it could mean she was yielding, but for him, she was preparing to strike as hard as she was able to. She was not one to give up; she fought until the very end, especially at this moment when she was facing people from her past, people who wronged her in the worst way possible.

The men were up again, their guns pointed at her and Colossus. There was no doubt that they were angrier than before. Elena counted on that, knowing that in that state of mind they would make at least one mistake. She felt how her horrible past was fueling her powers, making her stronger, deadlier, and scarier for her opponents. She saw fear in their eyes and that made her smile. She wanted them to be frightened of her. They were very lucky she had no telepathic skills or they would be forever trapped in their worst nightmares.

“On the ground! Both of you!” An order came from the group's leader just before Elena made her move.

She stayed where she was crouching, her limbs unmoving except for the fingers of her right hand making a sudden swiping motion. All of the guns were ripped from the men’s hands, floating up towards the ceiling while Elena stood up straight with her hands raised above her head as if she was giving up. Then she brought them down in one fast and hard movement, crashing all the weapons on the ground and turning them into tiny bits of metal. The flash of surprise on the men’s faces was worth everything. It lasted only a second before they attacked Elena and Peter.

The black and red flames around Elena’s hands intensified when the first man tried to hit her, while the second one went at her from the right side with a black combat knife. She did not wait for them to get close enough to touch her, ducking and then moving her clenched fists as if she was throwing punches. It looked as if she was in physical combat while her telekinetic abilities were the extensions of her limbs. She did not need to move her limbs to punch or kick someone. It was just easier to use her powers while her body was mimicking what her telekinetic thoughts wanted to do. As the Professor said, ultimately she would be able to do everything she wanted while sitting motionless. It could be useful if she was trapped somewhere where she could not move.

Right now, both men almost collapsed again when her telekinetic force hit them in the guts. She raised her hands lifting both of the men and intending to knock them down, quite literally, when she heard child’s scream. She looked to the side where the third man, the leader of the unit, was holding a girl, maybe four years old, against his chest with one hand while in the other one he had a knife, its tip next to the girl’s throat.

“You will let my man go and surrender yourself or I’m going to cut her throat open!” he demanded.

Elena saw Peter punching the last man standing in the face and he fell unconscious on his already knocked out companions. Then she looked at the girl, her green eyes were open wide and filled with tears of fear. Elena felt as if someone punched the air out of her. She could not believe what she was seeing. Those big eyes in that unique vibrant forest green color, the shape of the jaw line and the lips. She knew them way too well. She had seen them for years every time she looked in a mirror. That explained the feeling of being watched and followed. Elena’s appearance did not change much over the course of the last five years. Everyone who knew her before she was abducted would recognize her, especially her parents. This little girl had to be their daughter and Elena’s little sister.

“Let her go now, you son of a bitch!” She dropped his men with such a force that some of their bones broke on impact with a sickening crunch. She could not care less about them. “Let her go and I may consider to let you live,” she repeated.

“Surrender, now!” he yelled, the tip of the knife pressing into the girl’s skin, almost touching her carotid artery.

She felt fury burn inside of her even more now that she knew who this scared girl was to her. Elena might not know her and might never have a chance, but the connection was instant. She was her sister, her blood and flesh, sweet and innocent.

The energy flames burst up, engulfing her entirely as she stood there, her gaze focusing on the knife, willing it to cease to exist. It started at the tip, slowly at first, the black blade turning into small grains of black particles flowing in the air. It did not stop when it reached to the man’s hand. It started to eat it up, both flesh and clothes. The man screamed, releasing the grip on the girl. She did not fall, being caught by Elena’s telekinetic powers and moved through the air into Peter’s arms. Elena moved forward, her right hand raised and fingers clenched as if she was strangling the man. With each step, the man was disappearing more and more, his screams muffled and his body still in the invisible grip. His whole arm was already gone when she got in front of him.

“Tell Stryker that I’m coming for him,” she said to him.

She forced herself not to destroy his body completely but she did not repair the damage she had already done to him. He looked like a store mannequin with one arm ripped off. He was lucky that Elena decided to close the wound so he would not bleed out before delivering the message.

“If I ever see you or any of your men, I will rip you all apart, atom by atom.” Her voice was threatening and the man gulped, so full of fear that he almost pissed himself. “Now, go!”

He did not need to be told twice. Elena saw him ordering the rest of his mercenaries to back out. The ones that were knocked out were left where they fell, collateral damage that for sure was going to be replaced as soon as possible. Her eyes followed the men until they were gone. Only then she let her powers to stop manifesting. Peter did the same and a little girl in his arms stopped crying when she felt a warm body instead of cool metal.

“Hi, sweety,” she smiled at the child. “I’m Elena and this big guy is Peter. What's your name?”

“Emma,” the girl whispered, her little fists wiping tears from her eyes and cheeks. “Emma Mitchell.”

Elena stumbled a little and Peter grabbed her arm with his left hand to steady her while he held Emma with the other one. She knew that the girl was her sister, nobody else had the same eyes as her own, but hearing her own last name from Emma was the final confirmation. That meant that her mother or even both parents were somewhere inside the mall. She did not know how they would react if they saw her alive and free. And as she was still learning how to control her powers under stress, she did not want to prove them that they were right when they sold her to Stryker.

“Emma, do you know where your parents were before you got separated?” she asked the child.

“Mommy went to a big shop and I was with auntie Amy here, but people started to run and I got lost.” Her chin was quivering and she was on the verge of starting to cry again.

“Emma, it’s okay. We will find your parents,” Peter spoke, his deep voice having a calming effect on the girl.

“You talk funny,” she said looking up at him, wrinkling her little nose.

“Peter is from Russia,” Elena explained and then looked around. “We should move from here before security and cops show up. But firstly, we have to find this young lady’s parents.” She gave Emma a warm smile.

They moved towards the other end of the second floor, Peter still holding the girl in his arms. She seemed to enjoy it. There was one more thing Elena had to talk about with the child but before she had a chance to say anything, people started to leave their hideouts.

“Emma! Emma where are you?!” Woman’s voiced reached.

“Mommy! I’m here!” The girl started to wiggle out from Peter’s arms and he had to set her down.

She ran towards a woman with shoulder length brown hair, wearing black dress pants and a purple blouse with short sleeves. The woman picked up Emma and held her tightly in her arms. Elena was watching her from the corner of her eye as she waited for the inevitable.

“Thank you so much, young man,” Cynthia Mitchell approached them. “And you too, Mi-”

Mrs. Mitchell did not finish what she wanted to say after Elena turned to face her. She looked like a fish out of water. Her mouth was soundlessly opening and closing while her pupils were dilated from shock, her face completely drained of color.

“Hello, Cynthia.” Elena’s greeting was as warm as an Arctic storm in the middle of the coldest winter.

Emma had a confused look on her face and her gaze was jumping between her mom and Elena.

“Cynthia!” A woman, a bit younger than Mrs. Mitchell, approached them. “Oh, you found her,” she sighed with relief.

“Amanda, can you take Emma and buy her something to eat, please.”

“Yes, of course.” The younger woman took the girl from her mother’s arms.

Emma waved her hand and smiled at Elena and Peter while she was taken towards the food court. Both of them answered with the same gesture until she was out of the sight.

“It was you who called them.” That wasn’t a question it was a hard statement. “It was you who followed me around the mall, Cynthia. I bet you were surprised that I’m even alive.”

“He told us that you killed someone,” Cynthia tried to explain her and her husband’s actions. “He said-”

“And you were very gullible and believed he was telling you the truth while he was feeding you big fat lies,” Elena interrupted her mother. “You did not even ask me about it, you just assumed that I was guilty of those horrible things. What kind of fucked up parent are you?! You’ve sold me like a piece of fucking furniture! Like a slave!”

She could feel Peter’s uneasiness as he put his hand on her shoulder. She did not know if that was to support her or prevent her from doing something very stupid.

“Elena, I’m very sorry-”

It was a second time Cynthia did not finish what she wanted to say. This time Elena slapped her hard enough to leave a red imprint of her hand on her mother’s face.

“That was the least harmful thing I've wanted to do to you for all those years. My mutation back then was absolutely harmless but now I’m able to rip things apart with a single thought. All thanks to you, mommy dearest.” Elena’s voice was dripping with sarcasm at the last two words. “If I ever see you and your husband again, if you ever try to send anyone after me, if you ever do anything wrong to my little sister, I’ll come for you both. And it won’t be a nice visit.”

“Don’t you dare to threaten me, Elena!” Cynthia’s voice had this sinister undertone but there was fear in her eyes.

“But I just did. Weird, right? What are you going to do to me now?”

Peter was standing there ready to intervene if Elena was going to cross the line. He did not speak a single word, mostly being surprised by what he had heard so far. That was fully understandable because he did not know anything about her past. None of his friends knew either. He almost smiled at the challenging tone in Elena’s voice. Her mother was looking at her firstborn daughter, not knowing what answer she should give or even if she should give one at all.

“That’s what I thought.” Elena turned to Peter and gave him a tired smile. “Let’s go home.”

She started to walk to the nearest emergency exit not looking if Peter was following her. He hesitated for a moment and then leaned forward towards Cynthia and whispered something to her that made her face snow white again. Only then did he leave the mall.

* * *

Peter and Elena found the rest of the gang two blocks away where they were supposed to wait for them. They parked the car in the side alley and were leaning against its hood while they waited for their remaining two companions.

“What happened?” Jubes asked when Elena and Peter approached the car.

“We defeated them,” Peter answered her question without any additional explanation. Elena did not speak at all, just slid into the backseat.

“What’s going on?” Bobby wanted to know.

“It’s not my story to tell. If she wants to tell you, then she will tell it. We should go back home.”

Peter was not going to answer any of the questions that probably were nagging the rest of the group. It was up to Elena if she wanted to share her past with them. He was just a silent witness.

He got into the driver’s seat with Kitty calling shotgun. Jubilee and Bobby flanked Elena in the backseat. Along the drive back to the school, Peter was glancing in the rearview mirror at Elena who looked exhausted and had fallen asleep at some point, her head resting on Bobby’s shoulder.

“Is she okay?” Kitty whispered to him, glancing over her shoulder.

“She will be.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where's Stryker? Will Elena be able to find him? What Logan has to say about her plans and what are his plans for Elena?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And big big THANK YOU to Ever_Dreamer for fixing all of my mistakes in a record time. You're absolutely awesome! <3

Facing the Past

Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters

Salem Center, Westchester County

Elena woke up, lying on the right side of her own bed. She was still wearing clothes from the trip to New York, her boots standing by the foot of the bed along with her backpack and the shopping bags. She did not remember how she got here. The last thing she recalled was getting into the car and then, when they left the city behind them, everything went black. _I must’ve passed out._ She rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling. It was already dark outside and when she looked at the alarm clock standing on the bedside table, it was almost half past midnight.

The encounter with her mother was unexpected and emotionally exhausting, not to mention that she had a sister now. Elena was well aware that she should stay away from Emma. Dragging the little girl into a world of danger and fear was not something she wanted to be responsible for. There was no doubt that the Mitchell's would ever want to tell Emma anything about her older sister. Elena was more than sure that their house was wiped clean of anything that would remind them of her existence. She wanted to do so many things while meeting her parents after her escape. She imagined how she would make them suffer for what they had done to her. But now she was just happy that she had let them know she was alive, free, and more powerful than she had been five years earlier. For now, she would keep an eye on Emma from afar, maybe even ask the Professor to help her achieve that with his extraordinary telepathic powers.

She sat up hissing a bit when she felt soreness in her neck and shoulder muscles, probably from sleeping awkwardly in the car on the way back home. She felt hungry but decided to take a shower first.

Forty minutes later she was walking down the hallway to the kitchen stairs. Her steps were silent thanks to the thick carpet and the socks on her feet. She was wearing a pair of black sport shorts and an oversized gray t-shirt with “MESS WITH THE BEST, DIE LIKE THE REST” inscripted on the front. It was a line she had seen in one of her favorite movies. The hallway was dark and there were no sounds coming from the left wing where the underage students were living. There was faint light and sounds coming from the living room, but that was normal as one of the students was unable to sleep and he spent nights watching television.

The kitchen was empty to Elena’s relief. She turned the lights on and after checking the walk-in pantry and then the fridge, she opted for a frozen dinner she popped in the microwave. While she was waiting for her meal, she made herself a cup of lemon tea. She sat at the kitchen island and carefully sipped the hot brew until the microwave chimed that her food was ready. She took it out and put it on one of the wooden chopping boards while taking a fork from a drawer. She sat again and started to eat, replaying the meeting with her little sister over and over again. Elena knew she had to keep an eye on her parents and Emma to make sure the girl was safe. She would never let her sister to suffer the same fate as hers.

“Can’t sleep?”

The fork Elena was holding fell to the floor, hitting the tiles with loud clang.

“You almost scared me to death! Why did you sneak upon me?” she asked while using her telekinesis to move the fork into the kitchen sink and retrieve another from the drawer.

“I didn’t. I was standing there for a while but you were so deep in thought that you didn’t hear me, even after I knocked on the doorframe.” Logan pushed himself from the doorframe and opened the fridge to retrieve a bottle of soda. Then he sat opposite of Elena. “How are you feeling, darlin’?”

“Good.” She shrugged and went back to finishing her meal. “A bit tired.”

Logan did not say anything, he just twisted off the bottle cap and took a long sip of soda.

“Was the Professor angry when we got back?” she asked him after she was done eating, her fingers wrapped tightly around her still warm mug.

“Why would he be angry at you?”

“Because of what had happened in the city?” She was looking at her tea as if she could get answers somewhere at the bottom of it. “I messed up,” she whispered.

“If by messing up you mean saving that girl’s life?”

“She wouldn’t have been in danger if I hadn't been there!” Elena protested. “It was my mother who called for those men to come and collect me. They would never do that if the person in charge wasn’t well and free.”

She did not have to say Stryker’s name for him to instantly know who she meant. After the first shock that Elena was his prisoner as well, Logan accepted the fact that he was not the only victim of Stryker’s inhuman experiments on mutants.

“I’m going to find him,” she said firmly. “And you won’t stop me from doing it,” she added quickly seeing something flicker in his eyes.

“I was thinking about joining in,” he said with a playful smirk. “You can’t have all the fun by yourself, darlin’.”

Elena was at loss for words. She thought that he would try to prevent her from doing something as stupid as hunting down the man responsible for her suffering, for their suffering. Everyone she knew at the school would try to talk her out of it instead of casually asking if they could ride along. Well, maybe except for Jubilee, who would dive head first with the idea.

“What’s wrong?” Logan asked when she just kept staring at him with her eyes wide open.

“I thought that you would want to hinder me or something.” She shook her head in astonishment. “I definitely did not expect you to be willing to join me into this.”

“Stryker wronged us both. Letting him go free is not an option here. He was presumed death after his escape from prison but you’ve said it yourself, those men wouldn’t go after you if not being ordered to do so directly by him.”

She stood and cleaned up the remains of her super late supper. She needed to move, to force her brain to think faster and in a more efficient way. Plus, that meant she did not have to stare at Logan’s chest, covered only in a light gray sleeveless shirt or at his muscular arms. He was not aware how distracting he could be. 

“I’m not sure where we should start to look first,” she admitted with a hint of disappointment. “I don’t even know where I was held for all those years. It was just trees, snow, and coldness the night I escaped. I remember the road and that’s it. Nothing more.”

“What about your mother? You said she called for those men to come,” he pointed out, slowly finishing his soda.

“She won’t tell me anything. I practically threatened her not to get near me. I can’t just go to her house, ask her ‘Hey, mommy. I need the phone number to the bad guys you called to abduct me again.’ and expect her to hand it to me.” She took her mug, poured out the rest of the tea, and started to wash the dishes.

She barely washed the mug and picked up the teaspoon when Logan soundlessly stood behind her and grabbed her hands to stop her. The teaspoon fell into the sink with a metallic clang.

“You can’t keep sneaking upon me, Logan.” She tried not to move. She could barely breathe when his body was almost touching her. What she felt right now seemed ridiculous and out of place. She was supposed to find a way to get to Stryker, not enjoy Logan’s touch or his body heat seeping through her shirt. It was not helping that she was barely wearing anything at all. That made her even more self-conscious, especially with his warm fingers wrapped around her wrists.

He just turned her so she was facing him and embraced her, snuggling her into his chest. Elena stiffed at first, surprised once again by his actions, but then she relaxed a bit though way too aware of his warmth. Logan smelled like a forest after rain with a faint whiff of cigars. He was like an anchor or a safe haven. She sighed into his chest.

“We’ll find him,” he assured her, his voice quiet but strong at the same time, soothing her deeply. 

Logan spent countless hours helping her to use and control her powers. He was more patient with her than with the other students. Elena did not know what caused him to be like that around her. Was it the fact that it was him who had saved her that winter night? Or maybe it was that tiny bit of him that had gotten into her bloodstream? 

She was hesitant at first but slowly her hands moved around his waist and she snuggled into him fully, her shoulders not tense anymore. They just stood there by the kitchen sink, in the middle of the night, embracing each other and in some way, comforting one another.

* * *

Elena slept terribly and woke up just before noon, if her alarm clock was correctly displaying the time in green digits. She was still a bit tired and since she was hungry yet, she decided to stay in bed a little longer. She tried to roll on her back and stretch her stiffen arms when she felt immobilized. Something quite heavy was holding her waist down. She glanced over her shoulder and became fully awake. Behind her, in her own bed, was Logan. Elena glanced down at herself and let out a sigh of relief when she noticed that she was still wearing her t-shirt. From what she noticed when she was looking at Logan, he was still wearing his sleeveless shirt. She could not recollect how they had ended up in her bed. The last thing she remembered was standing in the kitchen, in his embrace, inhaling his intoxicating scent. Had I fallen asleep then? 

Very slowly and gently, she rolled on her other side so she was facing him. When he was asleep, Logan looked so peaceful. His face was fully relaxed, his hair ruffled with a few strands falling on his forehead. Elena could not resist moving them away. She was almost touching his hair when his eyes snapped open, startling her. Elena felt like a deer in headlights, her hand still in the air, mere centimeters from his forehead. 

“Sorry,” she mumbled finally, taking her hand away. 

“For what?” he asked and pulled her closer to him. She felt his warm breath on the skin of her neck and it was giving her goose bumps. 

“For anything that happened last night,” she replied, her eyes focused on the curve of his shoulder. “I don’t recall how I got here. The last thing I remember is us standing in the kitchen and then there’s nothing.” 

“You passed out, darlin’. Jean checked up on you and said that you’re fine but in need of more rest for the next couple of days. Tin Man told me that you made quite a show at that mall.” 

“Shit!,” she cursed silently. “They probably have everything recorded through security cameras.” 

“There’s nothing for them to watch. Jubilee fried everything up before they left. She’a s real firecracker.” 

Elena smiled at this evident pun. “Yeah, she is.” 

She finally looked at him and her smile was gone when she saw something in his eyes she had never seen before, something more than just the usual warmth and care. She could not identify it but it was somehow compelling, stirring some things deep inside her soul. His hand moved up, caressing her back and sending an electric jolt up her spine. Breathing suddenly became harder and she swallowed, feeling her mouth go dry, wetting her lips the very same moment Logan’s palm cupped her face, his fingers sending heat into her skin. Elena did not dare move, uncertain of what was going to happen next. She reached up with her free hand, touching his palm. Her fingers blindly finding the spots between his knuckles where his claws would come out. She slipped her fingertips there, the ultimate sign of how much she trusted him. 

Elena was looking at him with her lips slightly parted, her pulse way above one hundred beats per minute, which he could detect, thanks to his enhanced senses. She noticed that his nostrils flared faintly just before he pulled her toward him. His lips crashed on hers with hungry need, surprising her with both its fierceness and affection. It felt different than the kisses from boys she had been dating before her abduction. Those had been filled with hormone driven emotions while Logan’s lips were a promise of being safe, of being loved, of finally finding her way back home. She kissed him back while giving him an opportunity to deepen the kiss and he took immediate advantage of it. His facial hair was softer than she imagined, but still a little rough on her skin. 

Elena did not want to stop, not now when she finally felt whole again. Logan did not seem to be eager to take a break, only letting them both have some brief moments for drawing some air into their lungs. That only added more fuel to the fire they had started. Soon the kisses were not enough. A small moan left her lips when she felt Logan’s hand slipping under her shirt and finding its way to her naked back. That only pushed her to want to feel his naked skin as well. She tugged at his shirt and he moved away for a moment to discard it while she did the same with hers, letting him see her wearing only a set of black sports underwear. She almost gasped, seeing the hungry lustful look in his eyes just a fraction of a second before he pulled her into him once again, his lips briefly touching hers and them moving to her neck immediately finding her pulsing carotid artery. Elena felt his hot tongue drawing a wet line along it, making her tremble. Logan started to move downward when someone knocked on the door and they both froze like a pair of deer caught in theheadlights of a fast coming car. 

“Elena? Are you awake?” Jubilee’s voice came through the door. “Lunch is in twenty minutes!” 

“Yeah, I just need to take a quick shower,” she called toward the door. 

“Remember that you’re sitting with us today!” Jubes left and Elena could breathe again. 

“That was a close one,” she whispered and glanced at Logan who was still staring at her, a hint of hungry lust still visible in his eyes. 

She realized that he was lying shirtless next to her while she was wearing only her shorts and a sports bra, the covers somewhere at the foot of the bed. It was too late to play the modesty card. 

“I should go.” It was Logan who moved up and searched for his shirt. 

He got up, found his boots, and started walking toward the door when Elena jumped off the bed and grabbed his hand to stop him. After he turned around, she stood on her toes and kissed him hard. She did not wait for him to kiss her back and moved away licking his taste off her lips. 

“I’m not done with you yet,” she said with a playful smirk. 

“Tease.” 

“A man is recognized not with the way he starts things, but with how he finishes them.” She winked at him and then turned to disappear inside her bathroom, leaving him alone with her cryptic words. 

For a moment Logan considered joining Elena under the shower, but he knew that they would have ended up in there for more than twenty minutes and he did not want to see Jubilee walking in on them. He was certain that the nosy teenager would barge in without thinking twice. They did not need the whole school know about them. Not yet, at least.

* * *

Twenty five minutes after Jubilee left, Elena was sitting next to her in the dining room, surrounded by around two dozens of other students and school employees. She usually ate her lunch in the adjacent room with the school staff, but since it was summer and most of the students went home to spend vacations with their families, everyone ate meals in the same room. Kitty was sitting opposite Elena and was looking at her with concern. 

“Are you sure you’re okay?” she asked for the second time in the last five minutes. 

Of course, the news that she had passed out and Jean had to examine her spread around the school like fire. _Damn cell phones and social media._

“Yes, I feel fine,” she assured her while finishing her curry rice. “I was just told not to use my powers for a day or two.” 

“Good.” Peter, who was sitting next to Kitty, spoke for the first time since Elena joined them. The concern visible in his eyes disappeared. 

“So, what do you want to do today?” Jubilee asked in her usual cheerful way. “I thought we might spend some time in the game room?” 

Elena needed a moment to think how to decline in a polite way and not to raise any suspicions about what she really wanted to do. 

“I have some work to do today.” She smiled apologetically. “Rain check?” 

There was a glint of disappointment on Jubilee’s face before she was smiling again. To Elena’s relief, none of them suspected anything about her and Logan. She had to figure out what had changed between them first. It was a lot to think about. Her experience with men was limited to boys her age when she was still in high school and Logan was definitely a man, plus he was one hundred seventy eight years old, even though he did not look older than thirty five, maybe thirty eight. That meant he had way more experience with everything than she had. It made her think if they even had a prospect of a future together with so many differences between them. She actually did not consider how people around them would react. No matter what they said, it would not change anything. 

Elena excused herself, earning some questioning looks from Jubilee, Kitty, and even Peter, and after taking the dishes to the kitchen, she went down the hallway toward the west wing, pausing just after passing the door to the gaming room. She pushed a decorative element on the wood paneling and a semi circle part of the wall moved aside, revealing the elevator’s circular white cabin. She entered it and pushed the button for the lower floor. 

The school had a secret underground level that could be accessed only by the members of the X-Men team and some of the students who had practice time in the Danger Room. Also, a few other residents were allowed to go there, Elena included. 

She was unaware that she was being followed by Kitty. The girl stayed in the door to the dining room, only long enough to see Elena waiting for the elevator to arrive and then she phased down through the floor and walked toward the elevator’s door to stand there with her arms folded and a face saying that she would not buy any bullshit. 

“Damn it, Kitty!” Elena exclaimed when she saw Pryde standing right in front of the elevator door, blocking her exit. “You can’t sneak up on people like that.” 

“I want to know the truth,” she spoke, her tone dead serious. “Peter didn’t want to tell me anything and he’s the only one besides you to know what happened after we left you there alone.” 

“We defeated them,” Elena said, holding the closing elevator’s door and slipping into the hallway through the half meter wide gap between Kitty and the wall. “And I made sure they wouldn’t ever try to get to any of us.” 

“That’s not what I’m asking about. They were willing to leave us unharmed if you surrendered to them. They knew you.” 

For a moment Elena wanted to leave all the question unanswered and keep her new friend deep in the dark but then she remembered how it was for her to be kept away from any piece of information and she sighed in resignation. 

“They were sent there by Stryker after my mother saw me at the mall and called him. These powers of mine that everyone here is so afraid… He forced them on me. I was his perfect candidate for an ideal soldier he could use to kill mutants.” 

Elena watched how Kitty’s eyes widened in shock. She knew that it was not something the girl expected to hear. 

“Why would your mother even have his number?” 

“Because my parents were the ones who sold me to him.” 

With that Elena turned and started to walk toward the archives room to do some online research. After a few steps she was stopped by Kitty grabbing her arm. 

“If you want to find him, I’m your best bet to do that. There’s a reason why they call me a tech wizard.” 

Three hours later Kitty abruptly pushed back her chair and ruffled her hair in frustration. She had come up completely empty, regarding any information about Stryker after his prison breakout. It was like he vanished from the face of the earth. His old troops were still behind bars along with some of his associates while others completely cut any ties to him. 

“He’s gone,” she said and stood up to stretch her body after sitting for so long in one position. 

“No, he’s out there somewhere. They wouldn’t show up at the mall if he was dead or in another country. There has to be a way to find him.” 

Elena felt so frustrated that she wanted to punch something real hard. She was done with being a victim. It was time for Stryker to be terrified to death and she wanted to be the last thing he would see before his demise. She needed him to know it was her who would send him straight to hell. 

“What about your mother’s phone?” Kitty rubbed her eyes tiredly. “You’ve said she called him. Even if he had a burner phone, I might be able to find a way to get his location at the time of that call.” 

“I don’t know her number. I don’t even know if they still live in the old house.” 

“Just tell me their names and dates of birth. I’ll dig into the DMV database and pull out the info from there.” 

“You’re gonna hack their database?! What’s gonna happen if the Professor finds out about it?” 

“What the eye does not see, the heart does not grieve over. Or in this case what the mind does not see. Now give me their names.” 

“Arthur and Cynthia Mitchell. He was born on May 4th, 1962 and her birth was on December 1st, 1964. I can’t remember where they lived before moving to New York.” 

Kitty cracked her fingers and after sitting back in her chair, she started typing with astonishing speed. It took her only a couple of minutes to log into the DMV’s database and start the search. She started with the names first, then sorted the results, using the year of birth. She pulled up the final results on the screen and asked Elena to look at the pictures on the driver licenses. It did not take too much time for her to find her parents. 

“So what now?” Elena asked, while playing with one of the pencils lying around on the desk. 

“Now you’ll go upstairs and let me do my magic for you. No need for both of us to be stuck here. I have their basic info and I know what they look like so the rest of the search will be quite boring,” Kitty explained. “Plus, it’s faster when I work alone. No offence.” 

“Non taken. Do you need anything? Coffee maybe?” 

Kitty pulled out the middle drawer on her left to show Elena that it was filled to the brim with, more or less, healthy snacks. 

“I’m good, but thanks.” A faint blush covered her cheeks, as if nobody else had asked her that question before.

* * *

Elena left Kitty alone with her research and decided to hit the Danger Room. She did not bother with changing her clothes even though she was aware that they probably would not survive any of the scenarios she could choose from. The training simulations were always messy and tricky. Its purpose was to prepare them for the worst. 

She opened the door to the Danger Room and walked inside, making a beeline for the control panel. It was basically a steel column on one of the walls. It was hidden in the floor while the simulation was playing. Elena started to sift through the different scenarios, trying to find one that would fit her current mood which was set to destroy various things. 

“You’re not dressed for the occasion, darlin’.” 

“Shit! Logan!” she exclaimed, while looking for something she could throw at him. Unfortunately, there was absolutely nothing she could use, unless she was about to rip out some of the metal plates covering the whole surface of the room. “I’ve told you multiple times not to sneak up on me.” 

“Old habits,” he shrugged while still standing in the open door, leaning against its frame. 

“You're really asking to get your ass handed to you,” Elena said while going through the last few scenarios on the list. He only chuckled quietly. 

“Challenge accepted,” Logan said with a playful smirk. “I was going to hit the gym. You can join me if you want. I'll even let you use your telekinesis.” 

Elena turned off the control panel and walked toward him. She only stopped when her feet almost touched his. She raised her head to look him dead in the eye. 

“You'll _let_ me?” 

“Is that you saying that the challenge’s accepted?” 

She just gave him an annoyed look and walked out of the Danger Room, leaving him behind. She needed to change first; her t-shirt and jeans were not suitable for a sparring session. She kept her spare gym outfit in the locker room that was situated between the gym and the Danger Room. It was used for both females and males. Only the showers were separated. Her locker was in the far right corner. It did not take her much time to change into workout shorts and a racerback sports bra. All in black, as were most of her outfits, including her running shoes. She did not have time to braid her long hair so she just tied it up into a messy bun. 

After getting into the gym, she saw Logan already stretching inside the boxing ring that was set up in the middle of the room. It was on floor level so she just needed to jump over the ropes. She did her stretching in the locker room and now she was ready to start sparring. There was no need to rush Logan; she could have a few moments to watch him completely uninterrupted. And there was plenty to watch as he was wearing only his gym pants, his shirt draped over one of the corner posts. 

Elena was leaning against the ropes, waiting for him to finish while tapping her right foot against the red mat. She chewed on her lower lip while her eyes were wandering along his muscular arms, chest, and a much defined six-pack. 

“It lasts longer if you take a picture.” 

“Very funny,” she muttered, her cheeks getting a bit warmer, an undeniable sign of a blush. “Don’t go easy on me. I heal as much as you do now.” 

They were circling each other for a few moments and it seemed Logan was not going to make the first move, so Elena threw a punch, aiming for the left side of his jaw. She was using her telekinesis to deliver it since she would break her hand if it made contact with his adamantium covered bones. That was the downside of sparring with Logan. Only Colossus could hit him physically without getting his fingers broken into little pieces. 

The punch was delivered but it made Logan only flinch slightly. 

“That’s all you’ve got, kiddo?” he asked teasingly. 

Elena hated being called that, as if she was still a child. She went through the motions of throwing a left hook while she aimed a forceful kick into Logan’s left knee. It was enough to make him back away a little. She did not wait but threw a series of punches and kicks, each one more powerful than the previous one. Her aim was for Logan to go back to his corner and admit he was defeated. Some of her punches got through him pretty hard but before she could corner him, Logan ducked and caught her by the shin, throwing her on the mat. She got the wind knocked out of her at the impact. Before she could fill her lungs with air again, Logan was hovering over her, holding her hands above her head. 

She gasped for air and the movement of her chest made Logan’s eyes leave her face and move down. Elena tried to use this moment to free herself but he just leaned forward more, his naked chest almost touching hers. She swallowed hard after realizing that he could hear her heart pounding heavily and smell that it was not fear, frustration or getting tired but rather a very hormonal reaction to him being so close to her right now. 

“It’s rude to stare at woman’s chest like that,” she managed to say and that made him to look back up. It did not help at all because he trapped her in his intense gaze. Only someone completely blind would not recognize the longing and lust in his eyes. 

“Logan…” she whispered, being completely under his spell in this moment. 

The next second his lips were on hers, the kiss so passionate and hungry that it left her completely breathless. When she gasped for air, he used it as opportunity to slip his tongue between her lips. He tasted like scotch mixed with something sweet. Elena felt her hands being released from the grip. She wrapped one around his neck while the other one wandered over the muscles of his torso, as if she wanted to learn them by heart. Logan sneaked his hand around her waist and her back arched up at the contact with his warm hand. She let out a muffled moan and pulled him even closer. 

Nothing she had experienced as a teenager had prepared her for this. She felt lightheaded and in need of more than just kissing and touching. Logan’s touch sent tingles of pleasure throughout her entire body. She did not care about them being in the middle of the gym where everyone with an access to that level could walk on them. The entire world shrank to the boxing ring and them lying in the middle of it. She was inside a bubble of bliss and she did not want to leave it, even if the world around them was going to start crumbling down. 

Suddenly, Logan broke the kiss and got up, his nostrils flaring as he noticed someone else’s scent. He pulled a dumbfounded Elena to her feet, keeping his hand on her back to keep her steady until he was sure she could stand on her own. 

“Kitty is coming,” he said just before the door opened with a silent hiss. Then he leaned to her ear and whispered, “We’re not done yet, darlin’.” 

Elena was still in her blissful haze when he stepped between the ropes and left the gym, greeting Kitty on his way out. The girl looked after him, then her gaze went back to Elena who felt as if she was caught with her hand in a cookie jar. 

“Wow! I’m not the one to judge anyone, especially you two, but there are better places for a little tête-à-tête than this one.” She saw Elena blushing and she chuckled quietly. “Are you okay? You look as if Logan took a big chunk of your soul with him.” 

“Yes… No… I don’t know.” Elena shook her head. 

“Come on. You need a shower to sober up from this daze before I can tell you what I’ve found.” 

Ten minutes later Elena was dressed in her regular clothes and she was toweling her wet hair, listening to the information gathered by Kitty. Her friend was sitting on a bench in the middle of a locker room with an opened laptop next to her. 

“I’ve found the address where your parents live. They moved shortly after your abduction.” 

Elena snorted contemptuously. She suspected that they had done that in case she had been able to break free somehow. _So predictable. It’s weird that they didn’t go as far as to change their last name._

“Have you checked their finances too?” 

“No. Should I? What are you looking for?” 

“I want to know how much money they got for selling me to Stryker. I’m sure that he paid them at least a couple grand.” Elena tossed the wet towel into the laundry bin in the corner and reached for her hair comb. 

“It may take me some time,” Kitty forewarned. “If he paid them in cash, it may not be traceable at all unless they put that money into some account.” 

Elena sat on the bench opposite Kitty and started to comb her hair. She was thinking about her parents and how they were when they were still family. 

“They wouldn’t keep cash at home. My mother couldn’t stand having that kind of money without getting any interests from it.” 

Kitty was trying to keep her eyes on the laptop’s screen to not show Elena how sorry she felt for her to have a mother who valued money above anything else, her own child included. She typed furiously, digging through all the bank statements she could find for the Mitchells. The only sounds in the locker room were the ones coming from the keyboard and Elena brushing her hair. 

“I think I’ve got it,” Kitty said finally, her fingers hovering over the keys. “They started a fund a few weeks after you were taken. At first it was in their name but now it’s under their daughter Emma. You never said that you have a sister.” 

Elena sighed heavily and pulled her still damp hair into a ponytail before standing up and taking a seat next to Kitty. 

“I didn’t know until I met her at the mall. The mercenaries’ leader tried to take her hostage. She’s fine now, probably a little shaken, though she got fascinated with Peter’s metal form so it’s possible she wouldn’t remember anything else.” 

“Elena… I’m so sorry.” Kitty put her hand on her shoulder. 

“It’s okay. It was a bit of shock at first though. I’m not angry that Emma exists or that my parents even thought about having another child.” She shrugged and gave her friend a sad smile. “Her eyes are the same color as mine, you know? Probably a constant reminder for them of my very existence. So, how much did they get from him?” 

“Twenty-five grand.” 

Elena laughed, but it was a very bitter laugh. She stood up and started pacing as if she was trying to break the impulse to destroy something. Kitty was watching her carefully just in case her friend was going to explode, which in her state, could be something very literal. 

“I thought that he paid them more than that while selling their souls to the devil. That definitely wasn’t the best deal of their lives.” 

Kitty did not say anything, not really knowing how she should react to that. She expected Elena to express her disappointment and anger in a more vivid way. Although, it might be a good thing that it went so calmly. The school didn't need another renovation. 

“I guess you’ve found their new address?” Elena asked and looked at the screen after Pryde turned the laptop toward her. “Thank you for all your help, Kitty.” She smiled at the girl who gave her a worried look. 

“Elle, don’t do anything impulsive. Just promise me that,” she pleaded. “I can’t say that I know how you feel about them but they are not worthy of you getting into trouble. They just aren’t worthy.” 

“I can’t make this promise but I can say that I’ll try. Not for me or for them, but for my sister. She doesn’t need to know that her parents are heartless monsters as long as they treat her as she deserves.” Elena smiled at her friend and left the locker room with the home address for her parents etched into her mind. 

She wanted to go there as soon as possible but supper time was coming up and it was her turn to help in the kitchen. _Guess it has to wait till morning._


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It isn't easy to face those who wronged us. It's even harder when they are your parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ever_Dreamer, thank you so so much for beta-reading this chapter on such a short notice. You're the best! <3

Face to Face with Monsters

New York City  
The Mitchells’ house  
Monday’s late afternoon

Elena wanted a confrontation with both of her parents so she had to wait until they were at home. She kept her little trip to New York a secret from everyone. She did not need someone to babysit her on that. She was an adult and she was perfectly able to handle her personal issues with her parents in a more or less civil way. Besides, there were much better ways to get back at them than hurting them physically. Damaging their perfect social status was a more sophisticated revenge than sending them to the ER. 

Now, she was sitting in one of the school’s cars, parked a few houses down the road from where the Mitchells lived. It was late afternoon and many families were already at their homes preparing dinner or spending time together. She decided to wait a little longer and see what was going on in the neighborhood before confronting her parents. To not look like some creepy stalker, she had a road map spread over the steering wheel and was pretending to try to find a way out of this part of the borough when she was in fact studying it to find all of the exit routes, in case something would go terribly south. 

She was so much in her thoughts that she almost jumped out of her skin when the passenger door opened and Logan slipped inside. 

“One day you’ll end up dead because of that fucking sneaking up act.” 

“Nice to see you too,” was his only response while he was making himself comfortable by pushing his seat all the way back. 

“What are you doing here?” she asked and started to fold the map up. “And how did you even get here?” 

Logan was scanning their surroundings and did not reply immediately. She waited for him to speak, tapping her fingers against the steering wheel. 

“You shouldn’t go there by yourself,” he replied eventually. “Blink helped me.” 

She almost gritted her teeth in irritation. She was not going to be treated like a kid who did not know how to behave in public. 

“Is everyone at school afraid that I’m gonna blow them up or is it just you?” she asked, her eyes flashing anger. 

She could say that she was making him uncomfortable. Logan liked to deal with things in the simplest ways possible, though he was very far away from being a simple man. 

“Honestly? I would do that if I was in your place,” he replied looking straight into her eyes. “It’s hard to be betrayed by friends but being betrayed by your own parents, your flesh and blood? I can’t even imagine how hard it must have been for you.” 

Elena leaned her head back on the headrest. She closed her eyes and sighed heavily. 

“Making them suffer for their crime was one of the things that kept me alive. I wanted to rip them apart with my bare hands or to use my powers against them.” She went quiet for a long moment. “I wanted them to feel my pain as physically as possible but I know now, that it wouldn’t be enough. I could destroy their perfect happy couple image. I could show everyone what monsters are hiding behind those masks of perfectness, but there’s Emma now and she loves them and they love her. She is too young to understand what happened to me and what her parents have done; not that they would ever tell her about it. So, no, I’m not gonna hurt them, not today anyway. You can go back home.” 

She still was not looking at him. She did not want to see the pity in his eyes. She had gone through hell and it had left a lasting imprint on her but she did not need a constant reminder of that. She wanted to be treated as everyone else. 

“I’m going there with you, Elena. Not to stop you, but to support you. Look at me.” She opened her eyes and glanced at him. “You’re not alone anymore. Remember that.” 

The feeling of warmth started to spread inside her chest and she relaxed slowly. 

“You may need to stop me. I’m just forewarning you.” She gave him a small smile. “It’s good that Emma went to visit the neighbor’s kids. She shouldn’t know of any of this.” 

Elena took a deep breath in and slowly let it out. She reached for the door handle and climbed out of the car with Logan following suit. She crossed the street, onto the Mitchells porch. They were living in a nice two-story high house with beige siding. The porch was as wide as the house’s front and wide enough to have a swing for two people installed at one end and a little coffee table with three chairs at the other end. It had a roof and a nice wooden balustrade painted in beige color, a few shades darker than the rest of the house. 

She reached for the doorbell and hesitated for a second before pushing the button. The front door was wooden with an oval frosted glass window in the middle. She heard footsteps and the door unlocked and opened to reveal Cynthia Mitchell. When she saw Elena, she tried to close the door but Elena kept it open, using her telekinesis. 

“We need to talk about that phone call that you made yesterday. I just want the number you called.” 

Cynthia was so surprised that her firstborn daughter did not want to act violent toward her that she remained still long enough to drag the attention of Arthur Mitchell, who entered the hall, wondering what was keeping his wife at the front door. 

“Honey, who’s there?” he called approaching the door and opening it wider to see who was visiting them. 

Elena almost started to laugh seeing her father staring at her in complete disbelief, his eyes wide open in shock, his mouth moving as if he wanted to say something but there was no sound coming out. 

“Your daughter, daddy dearest. The one and only, who you sent to death.” She smiled at him sweetly. “As you can see, I’m still alive. No thanks to you.” She turned toward her still speechless mother. “May we come in and wait inside until you’re finally able to speak again? Unless you want your neighbors to see our little family reunion.” 

That seemed to unlock their ability to move as Arthur opened the door fully and Cynthia moved further into the hall. Elena stepped over the threshold first, Logan quietly following her. He did not speak a single word, keeping to his promise to support her during this visit or stopping her if shetried to do something she might regret later. 

Now, they were standing awkwardly in the middle of the hall, none of them making the first move until Cynthia’s perfect wife manners finally kicked in and she invited them to sit in the living room. 

“We won’t be here that long. I just want that number,” Elena repeated her earlier request. 

It made Cynthia rush upstairs where she probably had her phone. That left Arthur alone with them and it was obvious how uncomfortable he felt standing face to face with his daughter. 

“How—” he uttered but could not finish the question. 

“How what?” she snapped. “How can I be still alive? How did I escape? How am I doing?” 

“Elena…” Logan said quietly trying to keep her from getting angry. 

“No thanks to you, Arthur,” she said through clenched teeth and stepped closer to him. “You practically sentenced me to death. That’s not what parents are supposed to do. They are supposed to protect their children, not sell them into slavery. You believed in some stranger’s lies. After seventeen years, you threw me away like some piece of trash.” 

“He told us that you were dangerous!” Arthur exclaimed, his eyes looking anywhere but at Elena. 

“He fed you a made up story and you swallowed it without even questioning anything. He told me everything. He was laughing how easy it was to fool you while he was ripping me into pieces, torturing me every single day for all those fucking years!” 

“Watch your language, young lady!” It came from the stairs. 

When Elena looked there, she saw her mother standing halfway down with one hand squeezing the handrail so hard that her knuckles turned white. 

“Or what?” Elena asked with fake sweetness in her voice. “Are you gonna ground me? Make me do dishes for a month? You lost that fucking privilege when you sold me!” 

She felt her anger growing up inside of her. The craving for destruction wanted to be set free and she fought real hard to keep it at bay. She did not even notice that her powers started to manifest until she felt Logan’s hand on her shoulder, his fingers gently digging into her flesh. The red and black streaks of her abilities did not go away immediately but their color changed into a greenish shade before slowly fading out. 

Cynthia’s face drained of color while Arthur’s become almost red like a cooked lobster. Despite their different reactions to the situation, they were both visibly afraid of their daughter. It was Cynthia who moved first and fully came down from the stairs. Elena saw her fear when she approached her and handed her a piece of paper with a number written on it. 

“Just so you know, my mutation back then was passive and practically dormant at the time. But now? I could easily make you disappear along with your entire house and I wouldn’t even break a sweat. The only reason I’m telling you this is if I ever find out that you are mistreating my little sister, I’ll hunt you down like any other monster. Because that’s what you are – a pair of fucking monsters that should rot in hell!” 

With that said, she turned on her heel and left the house, destroying their perfect lawn in the front yard on her way to the car. The grass was now looking as if someone had burnt it. She heard Logan’s footsteps but she did not stop until she got to the driver’s door. 

“That was not wise. Someone could’ve seen you using your powers.” Logan stood next to her and embraced her after he saw her hands shaking. 

She did not cry. She was just so angry at the people who brought her into this world. The very same people who wanted her to disappear. 

“How could they do that to me?” she whispered into his chest. She thought that she was over it, that all of her negative emotions about her parents were buried for good, deep down her soul, but it was just the opposite. This had awoken all of her anger and pain and stirred it violently, bringing it straight to the surface. 

“I don’t know, darlin’. What I do know is that you have a whole family of people who love you, who want to be your friends, and who care for you a lot.” 

Elena was already aware of this fact that,and despite of some of the mutants living in the school being afraid of her, they would never betray her. 

Nevertheless, Logan’s words were the ones she desperately needed to hear right now. 

“We should go back home,” she said, gently pushing away from him. “I need Kitty to take a look at this number. If we’re lucky, she may find Stryker’s location.” 

Logan pried the car keys from her finger. 

“I’ll drive,” he said firmly and did not even blink when Elena tried to stare him down. 

At first she wanted to argue with him, but then she took a glance at the Mitchells front yard and decided that it would be better if they were gone before her parents found out what she had done to their lawn. It was a petty revenge but it made her feel a tiny bit better. Had it had not been for Emma, she would have done something way worse. They got into the car and Logan slowly drove off, taking the shortest route to Westchester County.

* * *

Kitty was very excited to get Stryker’s phone number and she got to work almost immediately, right after she warned Elena that she wanted to be left alone with the task as it would be quicker to get the results that way. 

They missed dinner time so Logan proposed to fix themselves something to eat while waiting for Kitty to finish. As it turned out, it was the school’s pizza night so they found two medium-sized pizzas waiting for them, still warm in the oven. _Whoever did that, they deserve some kind of reward._

They set up the table in the breakfast nook by the bay window in the kitchen. Elena made some tea forthem both. They sat on the cushioned bench in the window, munching through the pizzas while listening to the laughter and chatter coming from the living room. She was through her third slice when she decided to speak. 

“Would it speak ill of me if I were to admit that I wanted to do something way worse than destroying their lawn?” 

“Like what?” Logan looked at her. 

“I don’t know.” She shrugged. “Making them to feel the same level of pain I felt when my body was adjusting to the changes? Punch them so hard that they would fall through the walls? I know that I’ve told you that I’m above all that, but the way they acted… it just made me so angry.” 

There was a long moment of silence before Logan spoke as he was thinking how to respond to Elena’s confession. 

“I don’t think that would’ve been the case. You’ve been through a lot and it’s perfectly understandable that you would want to punish those responsible for everything that happened to you.” 

“But still, I wanted them to suffer. I wanted them to disappear, to rip them apart… And I would’ve probably done that if it weren’t for you being there to remind me that they weren’t my family anymore and that my home has been here, at this school.” 

When she thought about the encounter with her parents, she still felt the anger burning inside of her. Logan made her think more about the consequences of her actions. She could go with her initial yearning but in the end it would be Emma who would suffer the most and most likely hate Elena for taking away her parents. _It’s funny how everything changes when you add other people to the equation._

“You didn’t go with that. That’s all that counts here, darlin’.” He put his hand on hers. 

Elena turned her palm and interlaced her fingers with Logan’s. Her fingertips were firmly placed between his knuckles, which stated how much she trusted him. She knew how sharp his claws were, how easily they could cut through her flesh and bones but she knew, just knew, that he would never hurt her. 

“When I think about it now, I’ve finally realized that they just aren’t worth spending my thoughts and efforts on them anymore. I’m gonna keep an eye on them but only for Emma’s sake. I don’t want my little sister to experience anything bad if she ever turns out to be one of us. She deserves to experience only the bright sides of life. I’ve seen enough of darkness for both of us.” 

Logan let go of her hand, wrapped his arm around Elena and brought her into his embrace. 

“It’s time for you to see the light too,” he said when she leaned into him. 

“Not yet,” she whispered. “Not until this monster is put down for good.” 

She did not have to mention Stryker by his name for Logan to know who she was talking about. He hurt them both, made their lives miserable for years and payback was the only thing he deserved for his crimes. Prison time or even the death penalty was not enough punishment for him. Elena wanted him to feel at least the same amount of pain as she felt while being experimented on. She wanted to be the last thing that Stryker would see before his death. He had made her a weapon and she was determined to fulfill his sick dream but he would be the final target, not her fellow mutant brothers and sisters. She was aware that she could not ever reveal her plan to anyone else besides Logan. He was the only one who understood her drive to get rid of Stryker for good. The Professor would never let her do that. He always wanted to go the right way, to follow the rules. Elena agreed with him on a lot of those cases but not on this one. She already made peace with the fact that she might never be allowed to come back here. It was a risk she was willing to take. 

“We’re gonna to this together.” 

She wanted to stop him, to tell him to stay away from this and she opened her mouth to say it when she looked him in the eyes and saw all of his pain and anger that had pent up inside him for years. So she just nodded in agreement. She even chuckled a bit at the thought of them having this little competition to see who got Stryker first. 

“What’s so funny?” 

“Nothing,” she sighed. “I was just thinking how fate crossed our paths and how grateful I am that it brought you on the road that night. I wouldn’t have made it by myself. That road was the farthest I could run to. I just broke down from there, not even knowing what time of year it was. I was so focused on my escape that I didn’t think clearly. I didn’t have a plan; I just took the opportunity when it came. I guess that Lady Luck was on my side for once.” 

Logan did not say anything, only embraced her a little tighter. He himself could not remember what made him choose that road then. He could’ve gone back to the school through one of the faster routes, but he decided to take this particular one. _As if something wanted me to save Elena._

He was so deep in his thoughts that he did not notice Elena falling asleep into his arms until he started to ask her how she wanted to pass time while waiting for the results from Kitty. She looked very calm when she was asleep and he did not want to disturb her but he needed to get her to bed. As gently as possible, he scooped her into his arms and rose from the seat. He left the kitchen and ascended the kitchen stairs to get her upstairs. The students were still hanging out in the living room and he did not want them to see him carrying Elena to her room. 

He managed to not kick her door off its hinges but opened it like a normal person. He walked in and put Elena on her bed. Mentally cursing to himself, he unlaced her high-top trainers and gently tugged them off her feet. Logan leaned over her and dragged the top blanket over Elena’s sleeping form. Before leaving, he gently brushed a few loose strands of her hair out of her face. His fingers lingered over the left side of her face, his calloused fingertips caressing the warm skin like the wings of a butterfly. She looked so peacefully when she was sleeping. _So innocent._ Logan almost retracted his hand when, without warning. Elena’s fingers wrapped around his. 

“Please don’t leave,” she whispered staring at him, her eyes pleading. “I don’t want to be alone tonight.” 

He just nodded and went around the bed, kicking his boots off his feet along the way. When he laid down next to her, he noticed that Elena had shifted herself on the bed and was now facing him, uncertain of what she should do. Logan just wrapped his arm around her and brought her closer to him. She melted into his side and let her head rest on his chest. Her right hand wandered for a bit over his torso until finding rest over the spot where his heart was. 

“Thank you, Logan,” she managed to mumble before falling asleep. 

He was not so lucky and spent a few hours looking at the ceiling, his mind replaying scenes from the visit at the Mitchells. They had seemed so ordinary, so far from being the monsters he had known from Elena’s story. They had feared her, her mother more than the father, probably because she had seen what her firstborn daughter had been able to do. Logan had seen many tragic stories in his long life, but this one was especially cruel. It was easier to be on your own by your own choice, it was much harder to be abandoned by everyone you ever cared about. _You won’t ever be alone, darlin’._


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WARNING!
> 
> This chapter is for mature readers, 18 y/o or above.
> 
> You've been forewarned!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Birthday, Merawlee! 😘 🎂 🥂  
> I hope this chapter will make your day even more awesome!
> 
>  
> 
> If not, feel free to hunt me down. 😝

On the Road Again

Alberta, Canada  
Tuesday evening

Going through the security checkpoints on the airport in Edmonton was not any different than the ones at the JFK. Elena did not need to be very close to the security gates to keep them from beeping when Logan was going through them. It was easier than she thought it would be. 

She spent most of the flight reading everything Kitty was able to gather about the Alkali Lake facility and the area surrounding it. The owner of the phone number, which Cynthia Mitchell had called, was supposed to be there. Logan had been there once while looking into his past but he had not found anything. The facility had been closed for years and it had been slowly decaying over time. 

It was mid afternoon when they got out from the airport and took a taxi to the city. Elena planned ahead knowing that after a nine hour long flight, they would need some rest and booked them a room with two beds at the Royal Motel. After getting a key card and finding the right room number, there was a surprise waiting for them. To Elena’s astonishment, someone had messed up the reservation and instead of two queen size beds, there was a king size one. 

“I’ll go fix it,” Logan offered, mistakenly reading her hesitation as her not wanting to share a bed. 

“It’s fine,” she quickly said to stop him from leaving. “Not that we haven’t sleep in the same bed before, right?” There was a hint of joking in her voice. 

“Are you sure?” 

Elena entered the room and left her bag on the floor next to the right side of the bed. She turned to Logan who was still standing in the doorway waiting for her reply. 

“I’m sure. But if you dare steal the sheets, I will kick your butt to the floor.” 

“No promises,” he muttered under his breath and entered the room closing the door behind him. Elena sat at the foot of the bed and was already on her phone. “I’m starving and there are a few nice places in walking distance from here. Pick one.” She handed him her phone. 

She had enough time during the flight to read, think and try to form some kind of plan for when they would find Stryker and she felt overloaded with that. She wanted to focus on something mundane, something familiar and as ordinary as possible. It helped that her stomach decided that it was time to eat. It took Logan a few minutes to go through all of the options, but finally he picked one place and returned the phone to Elena. 

“Japanese food?” she asked, rising up one eyebrow. 

“I was in Japan for some time.” 

“And you miss their food, right? Or maybe it’s all about sake?” She was well aware that Logan liked alcohol since it did not have any effect on him. It was something about his healing factor and now she wondered if she could ever get drunk. Maybe it was a chance to test this theory. Logan just smiled, refusing to either confirm or deny anything. “Fine, Aizuki it is then.”

* * *

The restaurant was not far away from the motel and after an almost forty minute walk they got there. It was not too big thus it felt warm and welcoming. The entryway where customers could leave their coats in the winter opened to a dining area with over a dozen of tables set in the middle and along big front windows. There were several booths along both side walls. Along the back wall there was a long bar with stools for customers who wanted to watch their food being prepared. On the right, there were was a little area for preparing drinks. 

A few of the tables were occupied either by couples or families enjoying their early dinners. Two Japanese chefs were working behind the bar, having five customers sitting and waiting for sushi or bowls of hot ramen. 

Logan gestured to one of the booths and they sat there. The menus were in a little holder standing by the wall. They took one each and started looking at the dishes. Elena liked that there were pictures of every dish so she was able to see what the food looked like with a list of ingredients next to it. A few minutes later, a waitress came by to take their order. Elena could not decide what she should try so she asked Logan to pick something for her. She stared at him wide-eyed when he gave his order in perfect Japanese. That surprised the waitress as well. She smiled at him before leaving to get their order. 

“I didn’t know that you speak Japanese,” Elena said when they were alone again. 

“You never asked, darlin’,” he replied with a little smirk. 

Elena felt a little tempted to bombard him with questions but she knew better not to behave like a crazed groupie at the sight of a celebrity. Everyone had a right to keep their secrets hidden. Besides, it was easier for her to pretend that Logan was only a few years older than her than over a whole century. She wondered if she would be able to live as long as him. 

“You’re full of surprises, Logan.” She smiled at him. 

They did not hurry with their dinner as Logan insisted that she should try different types of sushi, some ramen soup and even some okonomiyaki they shared since it was too big for Elena to eat by herself. Before leaving they tried a few different kinds of sake. 

When they left the restaurant, Elena insisted on going for a walk. She needed to burn some of her dinner off before going back to their room. 

“Too bad that we don’t have a Japanese restaurant in Salem,” she said after crossing the street. “On the other hand I would probably left most of my money there,” she chuckled, feeling a bit lightheaded. _Maybe I don’t get alcohol immunity in the package._

“There’s still New York,” Logan pointed out. 

“It’s too far away to go there often. Not that I’m complaining or anything but--” Elena did not finish when she saw an ice-cream stand at the entrance to a small park. “I know that I said I was full but we didn’t have the dessert yet.” She grabbed Logan’s hand and tugged him toward the stand. 

Elena picked a chocolate one with salted caramel sauce and Logan opted for a chocolate mint one with maple syrup. They decided to eat while walking back to their motel. By the time they got at the door to their room, Elena finished her ice-cream. She wondered what took Logan so long as he was maybe halfway through his but she had to admit that his portion was twice as big as hers. She was opening the door with the key card when she heard a very irritated “Fuck!” and when she turned around, she saw that Logan’s waffle had broken and the whole front of his grey t-shirt was covered with half-melted chocolate ice-cream mixed with a bit of sticky maple syrup. She laughed, not even trying to hide it. 

“Is this funny to you?” Logan asked her with his face so neutral that she was not sure if he was completely serious or was just joking about it. 

“Kind of, I guess,” she replied, pushing the door wide open and slowly backing away inside the room. “Kitty would probably say something about liking when a man gets dirty.” 

“And what you would say about it?” Logan entered the room and locked the door behind him before stepping closer to Elena who stood by the food of the bed. 

The room was dark besides the light coming from two bedside lamps. It lit his face enough for her to see that he took her words as an innuendo. 

“That you should take off this shirt,” she blurted out without thinking first. When she realized what she had just said, it was already too late to stop Logan who quickly discarded it and was now standing in front of her half naked. 

She looked up and their eyes locked for a split of second before they were all over each other, kissing and discarding their shoes and clothes impatiently. Elena moaned when her breasts touched Logan’s chest, the heat he was radiating setting her own body on fire. She tried to take a step away to take him in fully but the back of her knees hit the edge of the bed and she fell on the mattress bringing Logan with her. He managed to keep most of his weight on his hands but still, she felt his whole body touching hers, especially his lower half. She felt how aroused he already was. Only thin layers of their underwear were separating them. She deliberately ground her hips against his hard erection, feeling the wave of satisfaction when she heard him groaning. 

“Tease,” he murmured with his mouth against the side of her neck while his fingers smoothly undid the clasp of her bra. Before she could feel even a tiny bit of cool air on her exposed breasts, Logan cupped the left into his big palm, his calloused thumb doing circles around her nipple, causing Elena to gasp and arch her back. He took it as a gesture of an offering and his hot mouth covered her other breast, sucking gently on its hard center. She moaned loudly when he lightly grazed the sensitive skin with his teeth. He repeated this with her other breast before he moved up to kiss her lips again. She used this moment to explore his body, tracing the outline of muscles on his chest and abs with her hand, only hesitating briefly when she reached the hem of his underwear. Her fingers slipped inside and she wrapped them gently around his hard shaft. Logan groaned and shuddered breaking the kiss. 

“You’re playing with fire here, darlin’,” he said in a husky voice. 

“What if I want it to devour me?” she asked and tugged at his underwear down his hips with her other hand. 

Elena saw a flash of pure lust in Logan’s eyes just as he moved away to find his discarded jeans and wallet. She heard the foil being torn and she felt grateful for him thinking about her safety, especially since it had not crossed her mind whatsoever. She stopped thinking logically the moment Logan’s lips had crashed on hers. Now he was back on the bed, slowly tugging her panties down, his fingertips leaving burning trails on her skin. For a moment she felt self-conscious, even though he had almost seen her naked just before Jubilee had interrupted them. He tossed away the piece of lacy undergarments and Elena chuckled seeing that it landed on the lamp. 

“Your aim is a bit off,” she whispered, still feeling amused and wanted to tease him, just to keep her mind away from what was going to happen. 

She had had a boyfriend before she was abducted and she had lost her virginity to him, but that had been over five years earlier and she was a bit nervous now. It did not help that Logan had way more experience than herself. 

“No need to feel nervous, Ellie,” he said quietly, hovering over her so he could see her face. “We can stop if you want it.” 

She rose a little from the bed and kissed him, wrapping her arms around him and bringing him down with her when she fell back on the pillows. 

“What I want, is you, Logan, all of you.” 

He gently spread her legs and she felt his hand touch her gently, testing if she was ready enough. She could not stop herself from bucking her hips into his hand and moaning after one of his fingers entered her slowly. 

“Please…” she whispered, digging her fingers into the skin of his shoulders. 

She needed more, more of him. She did not want to get off on his fingers, especially after his thumb lightly brushed over her clitoris, sending jolts of pure bliss straight through her entire body. She was sure he did it on purpose as a little payback for her touching him earlier. Logan painfully slowly removed his fingers and before she had a chance to rush him, she felt his erection brushing her folds and slowly sliding inside of her. He supported his weight on his left hand, moving the right one along Elena’s side until it cupped her breast, his thumb gently rubbing the hard and now very sensitive nipple. His mouth left a wet trail over her neck before he decided to taste her full soft lips once again. 

Elena bucked her hips against his, making him to bury himself fully into her. She moaned quite loudly into Logan’s mouth and wrapped her legs around his waist, digging her heels into his firm buttocks to stop him from moving. She had touched his erection earlier and knew that he was quite big, but she was not prepared for how he felt inside her. It was not painful, quite the opposite and she wanted to savor this moment as long as she was able to. 

“Ellie…” he breathed heavily, his pupils dilated from arousal. 

She found his right hand and laced their fingers tightly together, her eyes never leaving his when she relaxed her legs and rolled her hips to let him know that she was ready for him to start moving. Logan slowly pulled out almost completely before sliding in only a fraction faster, letting Elena to get used to the friction. He lost it after several thrusts when she raked her fingernails along his spine leaving the red lines on the skin and causing jolts of bliss to hit him hard. It did not help that Elena was grinding her hips into his, indicating that she wanted him to quicken the pace that he was happy to oblige. Her sweet moans were driving him crazy. 

The orgasm hit Elena like freight train, leaving her completely lightheaded and her voice hoarse as she screamed his name. She bucked her hips hard against Logan while her legs tightened their grip around his hips, when her body arched up for a couple of seconds. Her inner muscles contracted around his erection leading to his own release. He groaned and rolled on his back bringing her on top of him as soon as Elena’s body relaxed, causing her to let her legs slide from around him. He was still buried deep inside of her as they were both were enjoying the last echoes of their orgasms. 

Elena felt his heart pounding inside his chest and his ragged breathing, both of them matching hers. Slowly, she slid off Logan and rolled onto her back next to him, feeling completely satiated. She had her eyes closed so she only felt that Logan had gotten up and then heard him flushing the toilet before he came back to the bed. The mattress sagged next to her and she opened her eyes to see Logan lying on his side next to her. He reached his arms and pulled her into him, throwing the sheets over their cooling bodies. She sighed happily, snuggling into him and wrapping an arm around his torso. 

“You’re so warm,” she mumbled just before dozing off, knowing that she was completely safe in his arms. 

He followed her soon after, feeling completely relaxed and off-guard for the first time in a very long while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big big thank you to Ever_Dreamer who took her time to beta-read this chapter and fix everything that was messed up. I owe you big one. :)


End file.
